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January 4, 2010

Word and Phrases That Cannot Be Used for Naming and Branding (Or Anything Else) in 2010

I think it is only proper we begin the year with a look at the banned words for 2010 that have come from Lake Superior University.

They have just released their 35th annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness" and - no surprise - techie terms take the biggest beating.

These are words that one really should not even think about using in a branding and naming campaign. "Tweet" is history (OK, I doubt it), as is "App" (please) and some economic terms like "In these economic times," "toxic assets" and "too big to fail."

Also "czar" as it applies to government posts (Drug Czar, Jobs Czar, Car Czar etc), a word I looked at with some curiosity at the end of 2008.

Not to be outdone, Twitter has banned a whole slew of words that you can no longer use as PASSWORDS - because they are too obvious. Included in the list is the word password itself, as is 123456. Duh.

AskMen has put out the top ten "Most Overused Words," and these include "love," "hate," "literally" and "seriously."

Yahoo HotJobs! has the most "annoying, overused words in the workplace" up and these include some that I have been longing to see get led to the trash heap of slang, "leverage" being number one as well as "reach out" and "disconnect"... thank you, Yahoo.

The Frisky has come out with a pretty good list of 25 words and phrases that are the most overused of the decade. These are pretty good, and include obvious howlers like "wardrobe malfunction" and less obvious ones that still, I must say, deserve to be put out of their misery... like "date night" and "status update."

You have been warned, people.

Technorati Tags: Twitter, Tweet, App, Banned Words

Posted by William Lozito at January 4, 2010 8:50 AM
Posted to Brand Naming | Branding | Linguistics | Marketing | Naming

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