The overused word of the century

The Bing Blog ^ | 9/3/08 | Stanley Bing

[wbill]

I was at a meeting yesterday, one of those painful presentations where a guy comes in, does twenty minutes of PowerPoint, and nearly turns his entire career to suet. That is neither here nor there. I mean, those things happen all the time. This time, it was Badnick’s turn.

What was interesting to me is that in the middle of the debacle, I heard a small snap. It was the sound of a straw breaking a camel’s back. During the meeting, I realized that a certain word has now been so overused, so over-extended, so bled of any meaning, freshness or appropriateness, that it must now be retired.

That word is Leverage.

I believe I first noticed its widespread acceptance perhaps twenty years ago...(snip)

[stainlessbanner]

Seriously?

[wbill]

Conference calls where the first fifteen minutes are spent asking, “Who just joined?”

AAAAIIIII!!!! I'm with you on that one. And that ##%#^% little beep when someone comes in or drops off. Nothing's more irritating than getting interrupted in mid sentence by that beep, and some dumba** saying "who's there? who just joined in?".

If they were important or relevant, they'd have shown up on time.

[fortunate sun]

odd you should say that, I was going to nominate “literally” as opposed to “actually”

[ConservativeMan55]

I can’t believe this thread got to 41 posts without anyone nominating

“Hope” and “Change”

[renosathug]

Whose bright idea was putting the doorbell sound effect in there?

[TankerKC]

orientated

Yeah.

[rogercolleridge]

Amazing....(said in a phony, nasal, Hollywood-type voice, about other, dime-a-dozen Hollywood types)

[wbill]

Absolutely. Basically, this has been a phenomenal thread. We've gone outside the box, and created a whole new paradigm. On a going-forward basis, we should have more conversations on this issue.

Seriesly. This could be hugh.

[Domandred]

My vote is not a single word, but a phrase....”light years ahead...”

[MortMan]

Conference calls where the first fifteen minutes are spent asking, “Who just joined?”

Have you been monitoring my telecons?!? ;-P

[Rightly Biased]

Some bozo that wanted to know who was on a conference call I guess

[dighton]

This thread is probably going to jump the shark.

“And so it begins.”

[wbill]

generic, empty, overused word “cool" Point taken, but I'll take the word "cool" over the "kewl" I see all the time on the internet.

At least "cool" is a word.

[Fido969]

We shall forbid sportcasters to use the word “incredible.”

[MortMan]

It’s kind of fun when someone puts the whole conference call on hold and everyone gets drowned out by the sappy music, though! ;-P

[Sig Sauer P220]

And another thing! What’s up with this “meme” meme?

Yes, it sounds like Miss Piggy warming up to sing.

[Larry Lucido]

I think “overused” is way overused, I mean, it’s so last week, but we can workshop it and collaborate, and then maybe throw it under the bus.

[Old North State]

I have one I’d like to share with you too, “edgy”, but wait that’s two them.

[gundog]

“The word ‘unblowuppable’ gets thrown around a lot these days.”

-Homer Simpson

[PetroniusMaximus]

I nominate, “uh...”.