Banned Words

I'm stealing Santander's idea from last year because the thread amused me to no end. LSSU's annual list of banned words has been released...what foodie terms and other words are you ready to toss?

Just for shits and giggles, I looked up 2000 to see what words were banned then and which are still in common usage. My favorites:

24/7
You know what I'm sayin'?
It's all good
First annual
Segue
Issues

You can even check to see what words were banned the year you were born, much like checking the price of a house or a loaf of bread, if you were born after 1975: http://www.lssu.edu/banished/archived_lists.php

here's a few I am really tired of:

foodie
localvore
sustainable
green
change
global warming
carbon footprint
freegan

burger

jimswside wrote:here's a few I am really tired of:

foodie
localvore
sustainable
green
change
global warming
carbon footprint
freegan

Most of us spell it "locavore" these days.

Not food related, and I think I've already once complained about this, but can we rid the vocab of ginormous, which sounds so fake, I'm surprised my Google spell checker checks it.

And while you are taking my requests, can we also stop with the "is what it is" stuff.

Vital Information wrote:
Most of us spell it "locavore" these days.

i was using the british spelling

www.localvore.co.uk/

a few of my least favorites:
Twenty-ten
No worries
Not a problem
Make no mistake
and irregardless (yes, people say the last word often and it drives me crazy)

janeyb wrote:a few of my least favorites:
Twenty-ten

What else do we call the year? (I assume that's what you mean.) I'm still trying to figure out what to call the last decade. Did anyone ever make a decision on that? I like 'oughts.' I like that when I'm 80, I can say stuff like "back in the day in twenty-ought-nine, we couldn't say stuff like 'webinar' anymore!"

Pie Lady wrote:

janeyb wrote:a few of my least favorites:
Twenty-ten

What else do we call the year?

I hear 2K10 which I kind of like.

I believe the AP standard for referring to this year is to say Twenty Ten. So if you don't like it, you better get used to it.

Pie Lady wrote:I'm stealing Santander's idea from last year because the thread amused me to no end. LSSU's annual list of banned words has been released...what foodie terms and other words are you ready to toss?

Thanks for carrying the torch! This year's batch didn't have as many food-applicable items (although I may decide to call cemitas "shovel-ready" for my mouth), but I'm glad there is still some interest and amusement in the corresponding foodie subset.

Freegan is pretty bad, I'll admit. "Tapas" has also really been overused this year in published reviews and press releases (for any small-plates concept).

I think the foodie word of the year, however, is "captain."

As far as food words go, I wish the following words could be encased in cement & tossed into an ocean trench:
- Delish - I actually hate seeing this word more than I hate hearing it, and I REALLY hate hearing it. The last syllable doesn't take long to say or type. Hell, same goes for all Rachel Ray-isms: "yummo", "sammy", "stoup", "EVOO", etc. Yuck.
- Revelation - a hyperbolic adjective that always strikes me as a snooty synonym of "awesome" or "excellent"
- Locavore - I'll second Jim's nomination. What's wrong with saying, "I want to support local farmers & food producers"? Why the burning need to apply a label? To me, the label implies lots of self-imposed "rules", which doesn't sound like a lot of fun. If a label is so necessary, how about "responsible"?

As far as non-food words go, I'll second "irregardless" and add "supposably". Had a meeting with a client today, one lady uttered both of these abominations.

- Revelation - a hyperbolic adjective that always strikes me as a snooty synonym of "awesome" or "excellent"

I disagree. A revelation can occur when you experience something for the first time. That's why it's a revelation.

Umami - followed by an explanation of what umami is.

sarcon wrote:Umami - followed by an explanation of what umami is.

Your post is brothy, full of warm protein satisfaction and savoryness. A+!

gooseberry wrote:

- Revelation - a hyperbolic adjective that always strikes me as a snooty synonym of "awesome" or "excellent"

I disagree. A revelation can occur when you experience something for the first time. That's why it's a revelation.

You're absolutely right. However, in a vast majority of cases in which I see it used (in a food writing context), this is not the case. "The strawberries were a revelation". Replace "a revelation" with "kickass" or "un-frickin-believable" and the sentence comes through with its context barely (if at all) altered.

sarcon wrote:Umami - followed by an explanation of what umami is.

Nobody used umami in 2009. I banned it last year.

Kennyz last year wrote:"Umami" is usually used by pseudo-sophisticates who've switched to it after being belittled for using "awesome" and "delish".

The dish really hit those umami notes.
That dish was good, but didn't quite reach the level of umami.
The fries were good, but add some of that dipping sauce and, man, now you've got umami!

jesteinf wrote:

I believe the AP standard for referring to this year is to say Twenty Ten. So if you don't like it, you better get used to it.

You are right, and I know I have to get used to the term. I prefer Two Thousand and Ten, but I'm sure it's because I recently heard twenty-ten used 32 times in a one-hour presentation at work. The speech just left me hyper-sensitive.

Khaopaat wrote:- Locavore - I'll second Jim's nomination. What's wrong with saying, "I want to support local farmers & food producers"? Why the burning need to apply a label? To me, the label implies lots of self-imposed "rules", which doesn't sound like a lot of fun.

Sure, let's also get rid of "pig" and say "Any of several mammals of the family Suidae, having short legs, cloven hooves, bristly hair, and a cartilaginous snout used for digging" instead. I vote for getting rid of these (mis)perceptions about the word, not the word itself.

Small plates. Even as a euphamism for tapas.

"That being said"

Kennyz wrote:

sarcon wrote:Umami - followed by an explanation of what umami is.

Nobody used umami in 2009. I banned it last year.

Kennyz last year wrote:"Umami" is usually used by pseudo-sophisticates who've switched to it after being belittled for using "awesome" and "delish".

The dish really hit those umami notes.
That dish was good, but didn't quite reach the level of umami.
The fries were good, but add some of that dipping sauce and, man, now you've got umami!

not enough people got the memo. deserves to be banned again. or perhaps just the post-utterance explanation needs to be banned.

seasonal, local, organic

Mind you it is nice to have good, fresh food and a menu that changes. But these words get spun into a small, preachy ball that irritates.

Santander wrote:Thanks for carrying the torch! This year's batch didn't have as many food-applicable items (although I may decide to call cemitas "shovel-ready" for my mouth), but I'm glad there is still some interest and amusement in the corresponding foodie subset.

Glad you didn't mind! I love end-of-year lists, especially these kind!

Santander wrote:I think the foodie word of the year, however, is "captain."

I haven't heard this one. Please use it in a sentence.

chitrader wrote:Small plates. Even as a euphamism for tapas.

So how would you describe what they're serving at places like Volo or Quartino? I can understand being tired with the trend, but the term itself seems appropriate.

sarcon wrote:

Kennyz wrote:

sarcon wrote:Umami - followed by an explanation of what umami is.

Nobody used umami in 2009. I banned it last year.

Kennyz last year wrote:"Umami" is usually used by pseudo-sophisticates who've switched to it after being belittled for using "awesome" and "delish".

The dish really hit those umami notes.
That dish was good, but didn't quite reach the level of umami.
The fries were good, but add some of that dipping sauce and, man, now you've got umami!

not enough people got the memo. deserves to be banned again. or perhaps just the post-utterance explanation needs to be banned.

Thankfully I've never heard anyone say it, I've only seen it printed. It's still stupid. I vote for replacing it with MSGeelicious!

love this topic:


--"I'll do" in place of "I would like" or "I'll have". As in "I'll do the fish tacos". Not a pleasant image.

--Calling another person "bra". What's that about?

--ALL of Guy Fieri's pat phrases. If you're not Guy Fieri, I don't want to hear that you think something is "killer" or "money" or "bananas" or "the mayor of Flavortown".

--"Unctuous". It's food, not sex, ok? Get over yourself.

So many awful coinages, or perfectly good words overused and misused so as to be poisoned forever. My list (including several already mentioned) includes, for starters:

* gourmet---as a modifier (figured it had to have some sort of expiration date, but it's stil out there after what seems like 30 years of total bankruptcy)
* foodie
* decadent (relating to food, particularly chocolate dessert)
* authentic
* artisinal
* crafted
* X'd "to perfection"

Add me to the haters of "it is what it is" "at the end of the day." Ditto "no worries," and "my bad."

* robust (business/tech usage)
* "Man up" makes me throw up
* things said to be "like X on crack" or "on steroids"
* people challenging or warning other people to "go there" or not "go there"
* "ironic" use of "so," (e.g. I am so fired.)
* For some reason I recoil at "think" used to preface an example (e.g. It was so bad: think 2-day old lWhopper reheated in the microwave.)
* dude and bro (with or without irony)
* czar (except for actual Russian ones)
* "blue-ribbon" panels, committees, and "task-forces" "charged" or "tasked" with whatever

All of the shorthand catch-phrases and reflex cliches that mar our public discourse and let us know as soon as they appear that no thoughtful exchange is going to take place in the near future:
* mean-spirited
* unprecedented
* hope (with and without audacity)
* change (both the kind you can believe in, and all the others)
* business as usual
* nanny state
* libtard
* socialism/ist
* national conversation
* radical (as an intensifier for anything)
* MSM
* the X "community"
ad nauseum...because at the end of the day, I'm a curmudgeon and for me, it's (almost) all bad.

mrbarolo wrote:* MSM

What have you got against the Maxwell Street Market?

I'd also like to add my disdain for twitter and facebook shorthand creeping into other forms of communication and media including @soandso, #subject, and excessive vowels at the end of words such as 'the cheesecake was awesomeeee." Grrr. Let it be noted that I thoroughly approve of excessive vowels in the middle of words like 'the pizza was gooood.'

Not food related, but these words/ phrases stimulate my gag reflex:

"Efficiencies"
"Best Practices"
"I Challenge You"
"I Empower You"
"Synergies" -- (If uttered in my presence, this word will earn you a punch in the face)