January 2, 2011

The folks behind an annual list of words to be banned must really hate the Internet – the words "viral,” "epic” and "fail” topped the list.

Lake Superior State University released its 36th annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness on Friday.

Viral — often used to describe stories, videos or images that spread very quickly across the Internet — was the most loathed by voters from across North America.

"This linguistic disease of a term must be quarantined,” said Kuahmel Allah of Los Angeles.

"Epic," another Internet favourite, came in at No. 2., with language defenders claiming it's grossly overused.

"Anything that this word describes in popular over-usage is rarely ever 'epic' in the traditional sense of being heroic, majestic, or just plain awe-inspiring,” said Mel F. from Dallas, Texas.

"Standards for using 'epic' are so low, even 'awesome' is embarrassed,” said Mike of Kettering, Ohio.

The use of the word "fail” as a noun to describe almost any gaffe irked voters enough to come in at No. 3.

"If this word is not banned, then this entire word banishment system is full of FAIL. (Now doesn't that just sound silly?)," said Daniel of Carrollton, Georgia.

Other online terms that made the list include "BFF,” short for best friends forever, and the words "Google” and "Facebook” as verbs.

Politics also had an effect on the list, with Sarah Palin's "refudiate” and "Mamma Grizzlies” coming in at 9 and 10, respectively, followed by the phrase "The American People.”

"Man up” was deemed sexist.

"I'm just sayin'” and "live life to the fullest” were lambasted as redundant.

"Wow factor,” "a-ha moment” and "backstory” were just plain disliked.

However, much to the traditionalists' chagrin, last year's calls to ban the words "sexting” and "tweeting” turned out to be epic fails. I'm just sayin'.

Here's the full list for 2011. If you don't believe me, Google it.

1. Viral
2. Epic
3. Fail
4. Wow factor
5. A-ha moment
6. Backstory
7. BFF
8. Man up
9. Refudiate
10. Mamma Grizzlies
11. The American people
12. I'm just sayin'
13. Facebook or Google used as a verb
14. Live life to the fullest