At the end of the day, there are other iconic things in Michigan than just college football (Go Blue!). Murdick's Fudge, for instance. Traverse City cherries. But for the sweetest of all you have to look further north, to what is known within Michigan as "the U.P." (which is populated, of course, by "Yoopers"). Because the Upper Peninsula is home to Lake Superior State University, who long ago (back in the 1970s) proclaimed themselves language mavens extraordinaire and began putting out an annual "List Of Banished Words."

We hitched our first-of-the-year column to their tradition a while back, and as always breathlessly await the official pronouncement of all the words and phrases which have grown so trite and overused that they now annoy large segments of the English-speaking population (their press release lists a whopping 19 other countries that submitted entries this year, in addition to the ones from the United States).

As they did last year, they have limited their 2024 list to only ten entries this year, out of over 2,000 submitted. And as usual, some on the list have indeed annoyed me by their overuse, while others made me scratch my head, either because I didn't think the use was quite so ubiquitous or because I am too damn old to keep up with current young-person slang.

Curmudgeonliness aside, we hereby present the official 2024 Banished Words List (as always, from the frozen shores of Gitche Gumee):

Hack

Impact (esp. as a verb)

At the end of the day

Rizz

Slay

Iconic

Cringe-worthy

Obsessed

Side hustle

Wait for it

Taking these one at a time, we must admit rolling our eyes the first time we heard "hack" used outside the computer world (in "life-hack," if memory serves). Even then it seemed too cutesy; a mere rebranding of "Hints From Heloise," as it were. Wasn't "tips" good enough? Suddenly a new way of straining spaghetti was a "life-hack"? As I said, ever since we first saw the term used in this fashion our eyes have been rolling so we have to say we agree with this one. As the L.S.S.U. press release puts it: "Its widespread adoption in multiple contexts, extending beyond its initial technological context, has the potential to lessen its inherent significance. Using it everywhere, even beyond its tech roots, could make it lose its magic."

While this next one is handy enough as a noun, we (as far as we know) aren't a big fan of using it as a verb much at all. From the press release: "why use this word when we have a perfectly good word that makes more sense: 'affect'?" We have to agree -- unless it's being used as a verb for an actual collision ("the NASA probe will impact the asteroid," for instance). As long as they don't banish "impactful," which we do use with regularity, we're fine with banishing impact as a generic verb.

"At the end of the day" is just verbal laziness, "often employed as a rhetorical device that attempts to encapsulate the complexities of a situation summarily, lacking nuance and depth," as the mavens point out. Plus, it's not a favorite of ours. But it does seem to have staying power, as they note this isn't even the first time they've tried to banish it.

Not being young enough to appreciate its, well... charisma... we are also fine with banning "rizz," which we have to admit we had never heard used before the Oxford English Dictionary folks named it this year's "word of the year." As we said, the Venn diagram of its usage and our circle of friends and reading habits don't exactly interconnect in the first place. Which (obviously) means we don't have much rizz in the modern age. Oh, well, as Kurt Vonnegut Junior famously wrote: "So it goes."

Once again admitting something that dates us, we haven't really been annoyed with the overuse of the word "slay" since the show Buffy The Vampire Slayer went off the air. Which was (checks calendar) quite a few years ago. Obviously, the characters on Buffy had an actual excuse for overusing the term (since "Slayer" was her semi-official title), but we never noted its widespread use outside of the Buffy fan community. So go right ahead and slay "slay," in its usage as "a commonplace expression for any achievement... particularly in the characterization of routine or mundane actions." It should really go back to whence it came -- being used by performers (comedians, most notably) to describe an outstanding performance in front of a crowd.

As for "iconic," perhaps we are guilty of its overuse (we're not entirely certain). We think we limit its use to situations where we do mean "an absolute icon of the genre" -- calling Black Sabbath "an iconic heavy-metal band," for instance. Or calling 2001: A Space Odyssey "an iconic science-fiction film." But perhaps we do get a little loosey-goosey with the term, so we'll try to be more conscious of saving it for true icons in their field.

We are not sure (and we are too lazy to look up) whether the term "cringe-worthy" was actually coined in an episode of Seinfeld or not, but that's about the time period we started hearing it. In fact, the term is so ensconced in modern usage that we long ago dropped the hyphen and now type it as "cringeworthy". But while we don't think we personally overuse it, we must admit we find it perfect for certain situations, where you want to point out disgust with something but without too many negative overtones. But we do have to admit it had the funniest comment quoted: "The use of this term is cringe-worthy." But how else would you actually say that concept if the term was banished? "Mildly repulsive"? "Makes me wince"? If cringeworthy is to be banished, we're going to need another term for the exact same reaction, that's all we're saying. "Wince-worthy" could work, but even typing that was fairly cringeworthy, so we'll leave it up to others to decide.

This next one we have to admit we again have no clue why it's even on the list. Has everyone become obsessed with being obsessed? From the press release:

The casual use of "obsessed" to describe routine interests or preferences underscores a potential misappropriation of the term, prompting a reconsideration of its application. Should one be obsessed with a new kitchen gadget or a new shade of paint? This year's contributors think not.

Well, OK... we suppose... but it's not something we'd ever become obsessed with, we'll put it that way.

We do agree with the next one, but as with "impact" we have to carve out a loophole for its proper use (as we define things, of course). [Also, we do have to wonder whether it really should be hyphenated....] Apparently "side hustle" now can mean "my second job," when it never was intended to mark serious economic stress. The term "hustle" can't really be applied to working a shift at a grocery store, at least in our opinion. We would only ever use the term in relation to what it originally meant -- an interest that makes you money, but it isn't enough to really live on. The opposite of "my day job," in other words. "I am an insurance adjuster, but my side hustle is performing stand-up comedy," perhaps. Or "writing fan-fiction." Or selling things on Etsy or EBay. Or dealing Three Card Monty to the tourists in the park (which definitely qualifies for the term "hustle"). We've never heard it used to talk about "a second job I need because the first one doesn't pay enough," but if people are using it that way they we agree they should cease doing so.

And finally... (wait for it...) "wait for it...". OK, this one is annoying, we have to admit. The specific complaint given was: "If we're watching the video, then we're already waiting for it, right?" And we are indeed guilty of using it as shorthand for: "Oh, I forgot this video clip goes on for a while before you get to the funny part... so don't lose interest and look away, you've got to see this!" But we have heard it being overused in not-quite-as-similar situations, so we are on board with banishing the phrase. It is pretty trite and overused, we can certainly see that.

At the end of the day, the proper use of language impacts us all. And while we all can't be experts at every iconic word-hack that exists, we do think a certain degree of being obsessed with proper use is worth being at least everyone's side hustle. Even if a word or phrase has lots and lots of rizz, using it too often leads directly to... (wait for it...) not slaying by using it, but instead just sounding cringeworthy to all.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant