A thoughtful colleague has pointed me in the direction of the twin cities of Sault Ste Marie, which lie on either side of the United States and Canada border.
Once a year since 1976, in a peculiarity of academic life on the American side, Lake Superior State University issues its "word banishment" list or, to give the title in full (without tampering with the unnecessary hyphenation), the List of Words and Phrases Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.
No student of reactionary opinion on language would be surprised to learn that room was found in the 2010 selection for tweet, which is what people do - and also what they produce - when they communicate on the Twitter website, and a number of derivatives including retweeting, tweetaholic and twitterature. The committee responsible for sifting through nominations submitted by the public also frowned on "friend" and "unfriend" as verbs to describe the acts of establishing or severing links with fellow users of Facebook.
The university quotes Kevin K Morris, of Oklahoma, as wondering why, in the case of friend, people could not simply use befriend, "much more pleasant to the human ear and a perfectly useful word in the dictionary". Mr Morris did not go so far as to suggest unbefriend as the antonym.
Both "chillaxin", a gruesome hybrid of relaxing and "chilling", and "bromance", for a close but non-sexual male friendship, have been banished without me being aware that they even existed. But then, I had also not heard until a few days ago of "ten dot" to mean 2010, so it is clearly my duty to get out more often.
Let us return to the 2010 list. The case against Obamacare, Obamanomics and similar constructions is easy enough to accept, and we would surely struggle to find a champion for "shovel-ready", apparently describing a project that is virtually complete and awaits only implementation, or "sexting" for sending explicit text messages.
The "teachable moment", a lesson of any kind or an opportunity to make a point, is deplored, as are such terms, much favoured by the media and politicians, as transparency, stimulus, toxic assets and "too big to fail".
The tradition of banishing words and phrases was established by the late Bill Rabe when he was the university's director of publicity. He came up with the idea in discussion with friends at a New Year's Eve party in 1975 and the first list appeared on the following day.
But does anyone take notice? History indicates that the offending terminology tends to survive. We can hardly claim that "at this point of time", in place of "now", has been shamed into disuse or that people who care about the words they use do their utmost to avoid scenario, meaningful or input, all examples from that first list.
Indeed, not everyone believes the university's failure to impose its will is a cause for regret. The Canadian columnist Colby Cosh wrote in his blog at the website of the current affairs magazine Maclean's that the list is "an endearing ironic reminder of our language's indispensable freedom from strangulating academic authority". He welcomed the fact that no one could actually "banish" words at all and mounted a strong defence of some of the terms chosen as this year's casualties. There is, he argues, no viable alternative to tweet for Twitter messages, and I reluctantly agree. Less convincingly, he insists that to "friend" people at Facebook is acceptable because the word means something different from befriending them in real life.
For the truth of the matter, I suspect, we must look beyond Mr Cosh's comments and also the strident views of the list's supporters.
The exercise is not really an opportunity for Lake Superior academics to parade their superiority complex. It is a spot of harmless fun, accomplishing precisely what clever old Bill Rabe intended: generous publicity for a small and hitherto unsung educational institution.
Colin Randall is a contributing editor to The National and may be contacted at crandall@thenational.ae
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Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
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Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
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Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
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POSSIBLE ENGLAND EURO 2020 SQUAD
Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford, Nick Pope, Dean Henderson.
Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Kieran Trippier, Joe Gomez, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Tyrone Mings, Ben Chilwell, Fabian Delph.
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Director: Laila Abbas
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The specs
Engine: 77.4kW all-wheel-drive dual motor
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The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
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Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
THE BIO
Age: 30
Favourite book: The Power of Habit
Favourite quote: "The world is full of good people, if you cannot find one, be one"
Favourite exercise: The snatch
Favourite colour: Blue
RESULTS
Catchweight 63.5kg: Shakriyor Juraev (UZB) beat Bahez Khoshnaw (IRQ). Round 3 TKO (body kick)
Lightweight: Nart Abida (JOR) beat Moussa Salih (MAR). Round 1 by rear naked choke
Catchweight 79kg: Laid Zerhouni (ALG) beat Ahmed Saeb (IRQ). Round 1 TKO (punches)
Catchweight 58kg: Omar Al Hussaini (UAE) beat Mohamed Sahabdeen (SLA) Round 1 rear naked choke
Flyweight: Lina Fayyad (JOR) beat Sophia Haddouche (ALG) Round 2 TKO (ground and pound)
Catchweight 80kg: Badreddine Diani (MAR) beat Sofiane Aïssaoui (ALG) Round 2 TKO
Flyweight: Sabriye Sengul (TUR) beat Mona Ftouhi (TUN). Unanimous decision
Middleweight: Kher Khalifa Eshoushan (LIB) beat Essa Basem (JOR). Round 1 rear naked choke
Heavyweight: Mohamed Jumaa (SUD) beat Hassen Rahat (MAR). Round 1 TKO (ground and pound)
Lightweight: Abdullah Mohammad Ali Musalim (UAE beat Omar Emad (EGY). Round 1 triangle choke
Catchweight 62kg: Ali Taleb (IRQ) beat Mohamed El Mesbahi (MAR). Round 2 KO
Catchweight 88kg: Mohamad Osseili (LEB) beat Samir Zaidi (COM). Unanimous decision
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8 traditional Jamaican dishes to try at Kingston 21
- Trench Town Rock: Jamaican-style curry goat served in a pastry basket with a carrot and potato garnish
- Rock Steady Jerk Chicken: chicken marinated for 24 hours and slow-cooked on the grill
- Mento Oxtail: flavoured oxtail stewed for five hours with herbs
- Ackee and salt fish: the national dish of Jamaica makes for a hearty breakfast
- Jamaican porridge: another breakfast favourite, can be made with peanut, cornmeal, banana and plantain
- Jamaican beef patty: a pastry with ground beef filling
- Hellshire Pon di Beach: Fresh fish with pickles
- Out of Many: traditional sweet potato pudding
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