Sideswipe: January 20: Banished Words

Young clothes horses: "Pumpkin Patch are selling mannequins ... I just found my nightmare fuel," tweets @JJPalethorpe.

Out they go

Banished Words List 2017 from Lake Superior State University

You, sir - Hails from a more civilised era when duels were the likely outcome of disagreements. Today, we suffer on-line trolls and internet
shaming.

Focus - Good word, but overused when concentrate or look at would work fine. See 1983's banishment of, We Must Focus Our Attention.

Town Hall meeting - Candidates seldom debate in town halls anymore.

Post-truth - To paraphrase the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, we are entitled to our own opinions but not to our own facts.

Guesstimate - When guess and estimate are never enough.

831 - A texting encryption of, I love you: 8 letters, 3 words, 1 meaning. Never encrypt or abbreviate one's love.

Manicured - As in a manicured lawn. Golf greens are the closest grass comes to being manicured.

Echo chamber - Lather, rinse, and repeat. After a while, everything sounds the same.

Ghost - To abruptly end communication, especially on social media. Is it rejection angst, or is this word really as overused as word-banishment nominators contend? Either way, our committee feels the pain.

Dadbod - The flabby opposite of a chiselled-body male ideal. Should not empower dads to pursue a sedentary
lifestyle.

Selfie drone - In what could be an ominous development, the selfie - an irritating habit of constantly photographing and posting oneself to social media - is being handed off to a flying camera. How can this end badly?

Frankenfruit - Another food group co-opted by "frankenfood". Not to be confused with other forms of genetically modified language.

Fake picture that went viral #3.
This fake photo is relatively new, having started circulating on the internet since 2014. The picture was first published in a satirical article on the website The Lightly Braised Turnip where it was claimed that the giant squid grew to 49m due to radiation from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

However, according to National Geographic, the largest giant squid ever measured by scientists measured 12m. Photo / Supplied