From the Lake Superior State University Announcement:

Word “czars” at Lake Superior State University “unfriended” 15 words and phrases and declared them “shovel-ready” for inclusion on the university’s 35th annual List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

“The list this year is a ‘teachable moment’ conducted free of ‘tweets,’” said a Word Banishment spokesman who was “chillaxin’” for the holidays. “‘In these economic times’, purging our language of ‘toxic assets’ is a ’stimulus’ effort that’s ‘too big to fail.’”

Here’s the 2010 List:
Note: The actual announcement contains selected definitions and comments.

1. Shovel-Ready

2. In These Economic Times

3. Stimulus

4. Toxic Assets

5. To Big to Fail

6. Transparent/Transparency

7. Czar

8. Tweet

9. App

10. Sexting

11. Friend (as a Verb)

12. Teachable Moment

13. Bromance

14. Chillaxin’

15. OBAMA-prefix or roots?

The LSSU Word Banishment Committee held out hope that folks would want to Obama-ban Obama-structions, but were surprised that no one Obama-nominated any, such as these compiled by the Oxford Dictionary in 2009: Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland….We say Obamanough already.

See Also: Lists from Previous Years (Archive Back to 1976)

See Also: Complete List (Alphabetical) of Banished Words

Source: LSSU

The Independent (UK) has published a list of some of the buzzwords of 2009 that originally appeared in the NY Times three days ago.

The list was compiled by Wordnik. What’s Wordnik?

Wordnik provides information about English words and the context of usage from various sources, including Twitter feeds, and supplies what is not found in a traditional dictionary. It compiles words that users have added to the site and terms that might become part of the vernacular or vanish as an incident fades from memory. Also, it lists other word-oriented lists, such as words banned in the Irish parliament (buffoon, hypocrite, coward, etc.).

Here are a few selections from the list.

1) Chimerica: The intertwined economies of China and the United States, which together dominate the world economy. Popularized by Niall Ferguson in his book The Ascent of Money.

2) drive like a Cullen: To drive like a bat out of hell, like a member of the Cullen family in the Twilight vampire books by Stephenie Meyer.

3) green shoots: Signs of an economic recovery or of a company’s financial turnaround.

4) vook: A digital book that includes some video in its text.

5) warmist: Someone who believes that the earth is jeopardized by becoming warmer. Shortened from global warmist and used mainly by people who are skeptical about global warming.

Btw, the phrase “orphan works” also made the list.

[Wordnik] was founded by lexicographers Erin McKean (a former editor of The New Oxford American Dictionary and author of Weird and Wonderful Words), and editorial director Grant Barrett who edited the Official Dictionary of Unofficial English…

Developers might be interested to know that Wordnik has an API. The database also provides an Twitter feed and Facebook page.

Source: Wordnik, The Independent

It’s been a busy few days with year-end lists appearing all over the place. Here’s a compilation of what we have so far:

+ The New Oxford American Dictionary Names 2009 “Word of the Year” and It Has to Do With a Popular Social Networking Service

+ Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year Announced

+ Bing Releases Their List of Top Searches of 2009

+ Lists & Ranking: Global Language Monitor Names “Twitter” Top Word of the Year

+ Yahoo Releases Their Year-End Top Searches Rankings

+ More Year-End Lists: This Time It’s AOL’s Turn

+ Ask.com Releases Lists Containing “Top Questions” of the Year

+ Google Zeitgeist 2009

We thought there would be a few lists everyday for a couple of weeks. Not, all of them in the span of 24 hours. (-:

This time it’s AOL’s turn with lists for many categories. Elisabeth Osmeloski has a rundown of the Top 10 list members in each category.

What follows here is a list of the categories along with who/what made number one. This Search Engine Land page has a complete set of lists and winners.

+ Top searched celebrities for 2009
1. Michael Jackson

+ AOL’s top searched news stories for 2009
1. Barack Obama

+ AOL’s top searched movies for 2009
1. Twilight

+ AOL’s top searched for sporting events in 2009
1. March Madness

+ AOL’s top searched mobile devices for 2009
1. iPhone

+ AOL’s top searched for coupons in 2009
1. dtv coupons

+ AOL’s top “What Is… “ questions of 2009
1. What is Twitter

+ AOL’s top searched television shows for 2009
1. American Idol

+ AOL’s most searched for vacation destinations for 2009
1. Disney Vacations

+ AOL’s 10 searched for health conditions in 2009
1. Swine Flu

+ AOL’s top searched car brands for 2009
1. Toyota

Source: AOL (via Search Engine Land)