Heard about this on Phantom 105.2 today. Lake Superior State University have just published their "34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness" (although… what the feck the Queen has to do with the English they speak in America I don’t know…)

Anyway, I find myself pretty much in agreement with the majority of it (with a couple of possible additions).

The list goes like this:

Green, Carbon footprint/offsetting, Maverick, First Dude, Bailout, Wall/Main Street, ’something’-monkey (like script-monkey, code-monkey, etc.), <3, Icon/Iconic, Game Changer, Staycation, Desperate search, Not so much, Winner of five nominations, It's that time of the year again

I’d add the suffix “gate” … as in “Bertiegate” for the Bertie Ahern cash in the mattress controversy, “Soccergate” for the various FAI controversies, “Clintongate” for the time Bill shagged Monica, etc. etc. – Adding “gate” to a word to indicate that IT’S A CONTROVERSY, GOSH DARN IT is just … well … retarded. The Watergate controversy was so called because of events that took place in the Watergate Hotel – putting “gate” at the end of other words is just meaningless and silly – like most of the words in the above list.

Oh and that Internet-spawned habit of the “- much?” question (i.e.: changing a question such as “are you ignorant?” to “ignorant, much?” – often accompanied by a smiley face). Hate that. Let’s ban that too.

And maybe “That’s so hot”. (*shakes fist at Paris Hilton*).

Agree, much?