From ‘GOAT’ to ‘gaslighting': List reveals words that 'should be banished' in 2023

A team of judges from Michigan’s Lake Superior State University in the United States has come up with the list of words that they believe should be “banished”. In the year’s Banished Words List, the most prominent entries were GOAT – an acronym for the “Greatest of All Time”, “inflection point,” “quiet quitting” and “gaslighting”. The list, which was first curated back in 1976, takes into account the usage of the words and also how redundant the words have become in the last few years.

According to the official website of the university, the list serves “to uphold, protect, and support excellence in language by encouraging avoidance of words and terms that are overworked, redundant, oxymoronic, clichéd, illogical, nonsensical – and otherwise ineffective, baffling, or irritating”. The final list was created after going through more than 1500 official nominations.

“The singularity of ‘greatest of all time’ cannot happen, no way, no how,” Peter Szatmary, executive director of marketing and communications at Lake State, said in a press release.

“And instead of being selectively administered, it’s readily conferred. Remember Groucho Marx’s line about not wanting to join a club that would accept him as member?”

The judges singled out the word “GOAT” as the most redundant words of the year with “quiet quitting” also becoming extremely common due to the pandemic. “Gaslighting” was hailed by many as the word of the year for 2022 but it also found a place in the list of the words that need to be banished.