Time and banned words

[David Barnhart]

The Jan. 18th issue of Time magazine has a column under the "Short List" (p.
67) entitled "Say No More: 2010's Banned Words."



I'm sure most of us who watch language day-to-day shudder at the audacity of
some in academia to suppose they can prompt people to forgo the use of such
terms as:

_shovel-ready_

_transparent/transparency_

_Czar_

_Tweet_, the verb

_app_

_stimulus_

And _Obama_-.



The only thing that can be said for this list (year-to-year) is that some
people are paying attention to what and how they're speaking.
Prescriptivity is such a fruitless undertaking except for momentary
amusement.  Are the practitioners of such prescriptive activity infringing
on the right of free speech?  Perhaps somebody ought to sue them.



DKB



Barnhart at highlands.com

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