AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
For many of us a new year means a clean start, the chance to toss out things we don't need anymore or get rid of bad habits. Well, the folks at Lake Superior State University in Michigan say we ought to start with some of the lamest slang and ear-clanging jargon of 2016. They've come up with a list of words they'd like banished from our vocabulary in 2017. And to start - post-truth...
JOHN SHIBLEY: Which is sort of an oxymoron.
CORNISH: Historic...
SHIBLEY: Thrown around far too much.
CORNISH: And a historical leftover from the world of politics - the town hall meeting.
SHIBLEY: Usually civic affairs, they're now overproduced media events.
CORNISH: That's John Shibley. He helps create LSSU's annual - and yes, this is the real title - "List Of Words Banished From The Queen's English For Mis-Use, Over-Use And General Uselessness. It's been going on for 42 years. He says the election inspired many submissions this year.
SHIBLEY: If the political season got under people's skin, they could lock onto our banishment words site and vote for as many words and phrases related to the 2016 election campaign until they felt better.
CORNISH: Echo chamber is on the strike list, as is disruption, but some political submissions didn't make it.
SHIBLEY: We, of course, had a lot of votes for President Trump and Crooked Hillary. We didn't really want to wade into that swamp.
CORNISH: Plenty of nonpolitical words and phrases have been marked for banishment as well, on fleek - millennial speak for on point or looking good. Dad bod - I'll let you figure that one out. And get your dandruff up.
SHIBLEY: People got their dander up, I'm sure. Maybe they bumped into somebody who misspoke and said dandruff, but that received more than 800 nominations.
CORNISH: Maybe it was 800 people. Maybe it was one guy on a computer in his basement. Either way, the texting fave 831 is also on the chopping block. It's code for I love you.
SHIBLEY: Eight letters, three words, one meaning.
CORNISH: Shibley says that was a new one for him, but this next one wasn't. Last year, thanks to Donald Trump, this one was unavoidable.
SHIBLEY: Bigly, which was meant to be big league.
CORNISH: Yes, well, bigly is actually an old word.
SHIBLEY: It was commonly used in the 19th century. It's a good word that we can try to use again.
CORNISH: All right, that was fast. I thought this was supposed to be the banished word list?
SHIBLEY: (Laughter) Well, that's where we have two sides to this. We've never advocated getting rid of words, just using them constructively.
CORNISH: That's John Shibley of Michigan's Lake Superior State University talking about their newly released "List Of Words Banished From The Queen's English For Mis-Use, Over-Use And General Uselessness." His helpful recommendation for 2017 - get a thesaurus, but don't go overboard.