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Banned Words List Carries Its First Emoticon

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the bet-they-have-power-in-the-upper-penninsula dept.

DynaSoar writes "Lake Superior State University in Michigan's Upper Peninsula ('The land of four seasons: June, July, August and Winter') has just published its 34th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. Besides such unsurprising inclusions such as 'green' corporations being 'game changing' due to concern with their 'carbon foot print,' this year's list contains an emoticon for the first time — not a smiley face or variant, but the 'heart' symbol made from the characters 'less than' and 'three.' It's perhaps a sign of the evolution of language, or at least of this volunteer linguistic watchdog group, that a symbol compounded of two characters, neither of them a letter, is considered not only a word, but a particularly egregious one."

8 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. a flashback to the 90's by hort_wort · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Does anyone else remember when their teacher used to make the comment "'Ain't' is not a word... it isn't in the dictionary." Then finally someone looked it up and it WAS in the dictionary? People define the language, the language doesn't define the people. Those grumpy folks publishing this stuff need to remember that.

    If they really wanted to preserve English, they'd still be using "thou" and whatnot. Don't get me started on why the Bible is usually still in Old English... Most people don't even realize that it's already a badly translated mix of Aramaic and such. Thankfully, it's been retranslated finally into the "new international version".

    Oh great, now I'm ranting. I should get university backing and publish an official list of pet peeves too.

    1. Re:a flashback to the 90's by siride · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The KJV is in Early Modern English, not Old English. Old English is incomprehensible to modern speakers. u scealt witan over æm e u segest ær u spricst.

    2. Re:a flashback to the 90's by zerocool^ · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Interesting - that appears to be closer to modern German (my native language) than modern English.

      It's cause we stole it from you long ago. Most of English's "base" is German derived. It's just we're also very loose about adding words stolen from other languages. Making a faux pas at a rodeo is strictly verboten - you say this to an English speaker, and most of us will know what you're talking about, even though "faux pas", "rodeo", and "verboten" have all entered the English lexicon in the past 150 years or less. German, plus this stuff, plus 1300 years, equals modern English.

      This is, consequently, why I think English has ended up being a global language - because it's so absurdly flexible. When's the last time French decided it was ok to add a word? I hear all the time about cultural purists in France being against adding simple words that the rest of us have been using for years, just because "that's English, so we don't want it" or whatever.

      ~X

      --
      sig?
  2. Re:Language evolves - deal with it by Lobster+Quadrille · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We have now created symbols that can represent simple meanings cross-culturally and cross-linguistically

    We had these thousands of years ago, on the walls of caves.

    --
    "The cup is in turn designed for holding hot or cold liquids, and has an open rim and closed base." --US Patent #5425497
  3. Re:Language evolves - deal with it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's not that they don't recognize that it has meaning or that it's a word: Far from it. (By including it on the list they are explicitly acknowledging that it is a word, in fact.)

    They are saying that it, like the rest of the words on this list, has been over-used and misused to the point of uselessness, where any meaning it once had is now worthless.

    It's not that they disagree that it is a word. It is that they think it had a meaning and lost it, because people use it to mean anything they want.

  4. Re:A cause for celebration by severoon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Yea, what's with that? I remember /. used to be a site for techies, by techies--which means it actually used to work. Now I preview a comment and half the time I don't have the time to finish the edit-post cycle to get it posted.

    --
    but have you considered the following argument: shut up.
  5. Re:wtf by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Is this a new Slashdot low?

    This is more "News for Male Teens, Boobs and Stuff".

  6. Re:3 is the emoticon by Dr+Dodgy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yeah, and how long until...

    8===D

    Gets the boot?