A couple of nights ago, my friend Bryan and I were discussing things that irk us (surprise surprise), particularly modern cultural quirks. Skinny jeans (especially on men), bodily cleanses, ubiquitous, rectangle framed glasses, and other carefully tended hallmarks of supposed hipsterdom were the target of our well-aimed ire. Just as hipness is inevitably co-opted by commercialism, so are many words. Each time I hear these words, I cringe, especially when I hear myself using them!
Therefore, I am compiling an ongoing list of words that need either reassignment or abolishment. The list begins with:
HOTTIE- This one has been floating around for a decade or two. It sounds like pottie or a slang term for a person with syphillis. A lazy way to describe an attractive person.
BRANDING-I sincerely hope this term is eventually ushered out with the values that gave birth to it, namely those of the unfettered consumption that marked the previous eight years. Corporate speak often oozes into everyday lingo, much to my consternation..."thinking outside the box" refuses to go away.
SEA CHANGE- This is a very old term that seems to have made a resurgence of late, with annoying results. It is a potentially poetic way of describing a sweeping shift, but it has been so overused by the punditry that it has been squeezed dry of its lovely imagery.
That is all for now, but rest assured, more doomed words are to follow. Our culture pumps 'em out on a daily basis!
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