Monday, December 31, 2007

Organic should be banned?

Organic is out.

So say the word watchers at Lake Superior State University.

The school released its annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness today (read the AP story here).

Organic was nominated for inclusion on the list because it is "overused and misused to describe not only food, but computer products or human behavior, and often used when describing something as 'natural,'" according to Crystal Giordano of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Rick DeVan of Willoughby, Ohio, called organic "another advertising gimmick to make things sound better than they really are."

Or how about this one: "The possibility of a food item being inorganic, i.e., not being composed of carbon atoms, is nil." – John Gomila, New Orleans, La.

Or this: "You see the word 'organic' written on everything from cereal to dog food." – Michael, Sacramento, Calif.

Or this: "I'm tired of health food stores selling products that they say are organic. All the food we eat is organic!" – Chad Jacobson, Park Falls, Wisconsin.

Hey, we don't make up the news here at Blogriculture and the Capital Press, we just bring it to you.

You can find the full list of banned words and phrases here, and remember, "it is what it is."

Oh, wait, I can't say that, phrase was banned too. So much for my "wordsmithing" skills.

1 comment:

Elaine Shein said...

Thanks for sharing the list.
There were several in there that have irritated me in the past year.
It seemed the perfect storm for butchering the English language.
I'm curious what new words/phrases will appear during this election race. Politicians love to create new phrases, and unfortunately, media loves to adopt those phrases.

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