As the country stood perched on a “fiscal cliff,” legions of word lovers stood up and declaimed “Enough!” It’s not their taxes they were angry about. No, they were angry with that odd, melodramatic metaphor itself, and how overused it is.
“[We’ve] lost sight of the metaphor and started to think it’s a real place, like with the headline, ‘Obama, Boehner meeting on fiscal cliff,' " Barry Cochran of Portland, Ore., wrote to Michigan's Lake Superior State University, which each year compiles a list of overused words and expressions.
“The List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness” is a must-read for all authors and journalists who respect their craft and their readers. Throughout the year, Lake Superior State maintains an open line to English-language readers across the globe via its website, asking that anyone who’s got a beef with an overused phrase or word write to them.
The 2013 list was released Monday. Because 2012 was an election year, many of the expressions and phrases on it were foisted upon us by politicians and their speechwriters, including “job creators” and “kick the can down the road.”
Of all those “job creators” we heard about, Dennis Ittner of Torrance wrote: "One of the most overplayed buzz terms of the 2012 presidential campaign. Apparently 'lowering unemployment' doesn’t have the same impact."