Swag, Polar Vortex and Bae among words that should be banned in 2015

Pharrell Williams may want to drop the “Bae” part when he sings “Come Get It Bae” at his next show. Foodies should try to find a new name for themselves. Using Cra-Cra is just going to be crazy in 2015.

Lake Superior State University in Michigan is out with its list of words that should be banished in 2015, since they have been misused and overused in the past year. They named their list “List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.”

In 2013, the university called for selfie and twerk to be banished in 2014, but that didn’t work. This year, they hope people will stop using bae, cra-cra, foodie and several others.

The other words on the list are:

Polar Vortex - which has turned into a catch-all phrase for cold weather
Hack - for replacing the word “tip” and “short cut”
Skill Set - for inexplicably replacing a single word - “skills”
Swag - for being overused
Curate/Curated - for being overused outside its correct usage inside museums
Friend-Raising
Enhanced interrogation
Takeaway
-Nation - a suffix for sports fanbases (like Red Sox Nation, Packer-Nation, Brewer-Nation, etc.)

Every year, tens of thousands of people submit suggestions to the university on its website. The university has been compiling the list since 1976, when faculty and staff started talking about their hated words and phrases from the previous year.

image courtesy of William Bernard/ACE/INFphoto.com

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