Lake Superior State University releases its annual list of "banished" words

The 2021 list of banished words published by Lake Superior State University is, not surprisingly, overrun by terms related to COVID-19. As the pandemic drags on, people are clearly experiencing some repetition fatigue with words and terms like 'unprecedented 'and 'social distancing' along with any variation of COVID, coronavirus, or 'rona topping the list. This is a typical phenomenon, as every year the words that have dominated the zeitgeist often begin to wear on people's nerves. The list is published every year and has been since 1976, gaining international attention from news outlets around the globe.

The annual list started as a publicity strategy, intended to bring attention to the university. From the start it was a success, prompting the creator of the list, former LSSU Public Relations Director W.T. Rabe, to proclaim that the list would "go on forever." Lake Superior State University was founded in 1946 as an expansion of the Michigan College of Mining and Technology with the intent of providing an opportunity for education to veterans of WWII coming home after the war. In 1970 the university became an independent entity. Rabe, known for his off-the-wall publicity stunts, was always looking for ways to call attention to the remote university, located in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and to distinguish it from the Michigan College of Mining and Technology. In addition to the list publication, Rabe also thought up many other successful publicity campaigns, including the annual Snowman Burning, a tradition which welcomes the incoming spring.

The publication of the list happens on New Year's Day. This timing of the release is no accident, as Rabe knew it to typically be a slow news day, thus increasing the likelihood of news outlets reporting on it and bringing attention to LSSU. In 1987 the concept was copyrighted by the university and today the list gains attention from large news outlets such as CNN, BBC, and more. Previous lists have included words that took over our shared vocabularies. Examples include 'OK, Boomer' in 2020, 'Polar Vortex' in 2015, and 'Obamacare' in 2014. While the list is published in a tongue-in-cheek fashion, it does serve as a good reminder of the way in which language changes and reflects the world we live in. It also reminds us how the meanings of words change over time. As noted by Executive Director of Marketing and Communications at LSSU, Peter Szatmary in the official release, "LSSU's Banished Words List has reflected signs of the times since debuting in the mid-1970s, and the zeitgeist this year is: We're all in this together by banishing expressions like 'We're all in this together.' To be sure, COVID-19 is unprecedented in wreaking havoc and destroying lives. But so is the overreliance on 'unprecedented' to frame things, so it has to go, too."

Lake Superior State University is already accepting submissions for next year's list using this link.