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Thursday, January 3, 2019

These are the words you should be using more (and less of) in 2019

Posted By Devin Culham on Thu, Jan 3, 2019 at 2:09 PM

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Devin Culham

As we kick off 2019, we can't help but make a list of all the resolutions that we will attempt to conquer in the new year. Although losing ten pounds and drinking the daily recommendation of water probably aren't going to happen (again), there's at least one easy way to invigorate our minds in 2019 — by improving our vocabularies.

On Wednesday, Wayne State University and Lake Superior State University released their annual lists of words to use more often and words we can do without.

LSSU's 44th annual "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use, and General Uselessness" included 18 new additions ranging from millennial street slang to popular political jargon. Some words like "ghosting" you may be familiar with and are ready to toss out in the trash like the ex that never texted you back, while other words you may be more hesitant to "eschew" in 2019.

Here are a few choice words to delete from your vocabulary in 2019:

Yeet, as in to vigorously throw or toss

Collusion, as in two or more parties limiting competition by deception

In the books..., as in finished or concluded

Wheelhouse, as in an area of expertise

See the LSSU's full list of words to leave behind in 2018.

Wayne State University's Word Warriors, on the other hand, uses its tenth annual list to elevate vocabularies in the new year. Although at times "logorrheic," these "salubrious" words will increase your brain power in the year ahead and prevent it from becoming "fubsy" from using the word vibe excessively.

Here are a few words that Word Warriors seek to salvage from our long lost lexicons:

Anhedonia
• Inability to feel pleasure.
• Despite the fact he was sitting on the beach in the middle of summer, a crippling anhedonia overtook John, making him yearn for a quiet bedroom to pass the day in alone.

Anechdoche
• A conversation in which everyone is talking, but no one is listening.
• What started as a civil debate turned into a deafening anecdoche, in which every person believed they possessed the ideal solution.

Trenchant
• Vigorous or incisive in expression or style.
• The critic made a trenchant argument for the movie's awfulness.

See all of top ten words of 2019 from Word Warriors here.

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