Confession time: a list of the year's most annoying words is out, and I'm guilty of using more than a few of them on this site. (Hard not to, mind, when you write about news and popular culture. Mea culpa.)
Every year since 1975 a Michigan-based university has been reminding us of just how irritating we can be in our daily speak. According to an article in the NY Daily News, the terms 'selfie' and 'twerking' ranked among the most despised.
With more than 2,000 nominations, 'selfie' refers to a self-taken smartphone photo, from which even the likes of President Obama wasn't immune this past year.
In its 39th annual roundup, Lake Superior State University damned some 800 words due to "overuse, overreliance and overall fatigue."
"The list is made up completely from nominations," said university spokesperson, Tom Pink. "We don't just sit around and think of words that bug us."
We have one Miley Cyrus MTV performance for singlehandedly relegating 'twerking' to the annoying heap.
Others terms to grace the list related to social media, including 'hashtag' and 'Twittersphere.' Strangely, 'Mr. Mom' made the cut, an expression seldom heard—or so I thought—this year. A throwback to the 1983 Michael Keaton movie, 'Mr. Mom' has perhaps made a comeback due to the increase in stay-at-home dads (a term that is, admittedly, irksome in itself).
'Adversity' also featured, when used in a sporting context. "Facing adversity is working 50 hours a week and still struggling to feed your kids," aptly commented Kyle Melton.
What word would you most like to see dead and buried in 2013?
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