At CNBC make it on December 26, 2021 there is an article by Kathy and Ross Petras titled Want to sound more intelligent? Avoid these 15 words and phrases that are ‘embarrassingly outdated,’ say grammar experts. Those 15 are:
Bandwith
End-user
Granular
Hack
‘I did a thing’
‘It is what it is’
Influencer
Jab
The new normal
Pivot
‘Take it offline’
Thought leader
‘We remain cautious’
WFH (work from home)
Zooming
Lucy Kellaway also discussed granular and said it should be replaced by detailed. Back on December 16, 2015 I blogged about her Guffipedia in a post titled Jargon and guff. On January 4, 2017 I blogged about Tired sports jargon – please don’t say pivot when another word would be better.
Another article at Acrolinx on May 8, 2021 by Cynthia Spiers is titled 16 Overused words and phrases and what to say instead. They are:
At the end of the day
Bandwidth
Bang for your buck
Content is king
Get granular
Get the ball rolling
Get your ducks in a row
Giving 110%
Hit the ground running
Keep your eye on the ball
Leverage
A no-brainer
On the same page
Out of left field
Synergize
Think outside the box
Cynthia’s list has two ancient baseball phrases, ‘Keep your eye on the ball’ and ‘Out of left field.’ (Bandwidth and granular are on both lists). There also is a useful article at the Buckley School on September 9, 2021 titled How to rescue presentations drowning in jargon.
The 1895 baseball poster came from the Library of Congress.
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