DETROIT (AP) — A Michigan university has issued itsannual list of annoying words, and those
flexible enough to take selfiesof themselves twerking should take note.In addition to
"selfie"and "twerking," there was a strong sense among those who nominated wordsto
this year’s list that the word "hashtag" and term "Mr. Mom" had bothrun their
course."Selfie," a term that describes a self-takenphoto, often from a smartphone, led the way
among the more than 2,000nominations submitted to Lake Superior State University’s 39th annualbatch of
words to banish due to overuse, overreliance and overallfatigue. Even President Barack Obama got into
the act this month when hetook a well-publicized selfie with other world leaders in South Africafor
Nelson Mandela’s memorial service."It’s a lame word. It’s allabout me, me, me," wrote David
Kriege of Lake Mills, Wis. "Put thesmartphone away. Nobody cares about you."Since 1975, the
list hasgrown to more than 800 words, many from the worlds of politics, sportsand popular — maybe too
popular — culture."The list is made upcompletely from nominations. We don’t just sit around and
think of wordsthat bug us," said Tom Pink, a spokesman for the school in Sault Ste.Marie, in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula."Twerk" or "twerking," asexually provocative way of
dancing, found a dominant place in parlancedue to Miley Cyrus’ performance at the MTV Video Music
Awards."Time to dance this one off the stage," said Jim Connelly, of Flagstaff,
Ariz."Hashtag" refers to a word or phrase with no spaces preceded by the pound sign on the
microblogging website Twitter.Otherson the banned list include "Twittersphere,"
”t-bone," ”Obamacare"”intellectually/morally bankrupt" and anything "on
steroids." Peoplealso tired of the suffixes "-pocalypse" and "-ageddon" used to
makewords such as "snow-pocalypse" or "ice-ageddon."And enoughalready with "Mr.
Mom," a reference to fathers who take care of kids.It’s also the name of a 1983 movie starring
Michael Keaton, althoughmany stay-at-home dads these days don’t like the movie stereotype of aclueless
male."There were almost as many nominations for ‘Mr. Mom’ as ‘selfie’ and ‘twerk,’" Pink
said.He believes the title got traction again in 2013 due to news stories about the 30th anniversary of
the movie."Thephrase should refer only to the film, not to men in the real world,"wrote Pat
Byrnes of Chicago. "It is an insult to the millions of dadswho are the primary caregivers for their
children. Would we toleratecalling working women, ‘Mrs. Dad?’""Adversity" and "fan
base" —terms often used when discussing sports — got booed. Kyle Melton, ofWhite Lake, Mich., said
perspective is needed when referring to amillionaire athlete trying to get a first down in
football."Facing adversity is working 50 hours a week and still struggling to feed your kids,"
Melton wrote.___Online:http://www.lssu.edu/banished/___Follow Ed
White on Twitter at https://twitter.com/edwhiteap .Copyright
2013 The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
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