The long national nightmare is over! (No, we still have about 19 days to wait for that one to end, God willing!) I mean the wait for the Annual List of Banished Words. Here's the 2021 Version.
One new feature of the web page: a definition of each of the banished words, along with reason for its inclusion.
Fellow NitLetters may remember my aversion to the use of "reference" as a verb. It appears in LSSU's description of "pivot," but I agree with the critique itself. (Yesterday a political reporter had a little fun with the words "pivot" and "divot," concerning the Golfer-in-Chief.)
This year I've heard some words which have moved from the realm of nouns to verbs:
"Caveat," as in "I'll caveat that statement with a word of advice." Granted: the ancient Latin word stems from a two-word hortatory expression, "Caveat emptor." But the literal translation of "Let the. . ." sounds peculiar when used as a straight-up verb in English.
"Distance" (as in "social distancing" in the LSSU list) similarly contains a noun as part of a verb phrase, often as a split infinitive: "to social(ly) distance." What strikes me funny is that the phrase "social distant" once described a person who freely avoids parties and conviviality — a "cold fish", or as in the cliché about an alleged perpetrator, "he kept to himself."
The word "transition" has been a noun, at least as long as yours fooly can remember (and that's a long, long time.) A verb usually precedes the word; for instance, "Help me make a smooth transition into geezerhood." But this past year, I've been hearing "transition" as a stand-alone verb.
"Transition" as a verb has popped up in several statements about a certain event to occur on January 20 in the USA (or at least scheduled as such.) But more likely you'll hear the word in terms of education: "Middle schools and high schools will transition into a virtual learning environment."
I'd love to see members of NitLet "community" tell us which words and phrases from 2020 (or any year) ought to be banished. (Note that I didn't say "need to be" as a euphemism for "should" or "must.")
Post 'em right on this thread.
Oh, and Happy New Year! (Whatever happens, it can't be any worse than 2020. Can it?)
https://www.lssu.edu/traditions/banishedwords/#toggle-id-1