Say Farewell to ‘Rizz’ and Other Words That Are Already Out of Fashion
WORDS NOT TO LIVE BY: Just like fashion, the lifespan of words can be finite. With that in mind, some well-worn words are already off-limits, even though the year just started. The 2024 “Banished Words List” published by Lake Superior State University includes a few that are popular with designers, influencers and advertisers alike — as in “iconic,” “cringe-worthy,” and “obsessed.” Those three adjectives ranked respectively sixth, seventh and eighth on the list of 10.
Topping the list was “hack,” which earned that first-place finish for being used everywhere beyond its tech roots. C-suite executives could take to mind the second-place “impact.” The university posed a worthwhile question — “Why use this word, when we have a perfectly good word that makes more sense: “affect”?
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The third word to avoid at all costs is an expression and one that is being re-banished. “At the end of the day” is considered “overused and meaningless, often employed as a rhetorical device that attempts to encapsulate the complexities of a situation summarily, lacking nuance and depth.”
More than 2,000 nominations were submitted for the 2024 ranking. The bulk of those came from the U.S., but there were also suggestions ranging from Australia to Canada.
Despite all of the recent headlines about “rizz” being Oxford’s 2023 Word of the Year, LSSU is ready to show that to the exit. This abbreviation for charisma is already “a familiar presence in the realm of social media discourse,” according to LSSU. “The ubiquity of this term prompts contemplation on whether it retains its relevance.” There might be something to that — a Google search for “rizz” Thursday afternoon generated 38.8 million possibilities.
And apparently “slay” no longer connotes the exceptionalism it once did — now being sprinkled everywhere and applying to everything “from wearing a stylish outfit to tackling the art of parallel parking.”
Rounding out the list as ninth and 10th are “side hustle” and “wait for it.” Contributors felt that the only hustle is the one needed to get to their second job. And “wait for it” is trying to be the hype master.
The 48-year-old annual list was first cooked up by LSSU’ s public relations director W.T. “Bill” Rabe to draw attention to the little-known school.
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