Tired of hearing about "TomKat" and "Brangelina"? Sick of commercials telling you to "ask your doctor" to prescribe medication you don't need? Both of these common language nuisances were cited on the tongue-in-cheek 32nd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness compiled by Lake Superior State University. Culled from about 4,500 submissions by language-saavy individuals, this year's list also includes "awesome" (which first received a temporary ban in 1984), "gone missing," and "undocumented alien," which was cited by one contributor as being too euphemistic: "It's like saying a drug dealer is an 'undocumented pharmacist,'" said John Varga of Westfield, New Jersey. The phrase "we're pregnant" was purged from the lexicon as well—but only for 9 months.

The word "boasts" was cited for its overuse in real estate classified ads by contributor Morris Conklin of Portugal, perturbed by the frequent appearance of phrases like "master bedroom boasts his-and-her fireplaces," but not "bathroom apologizes for cracked linoleum,' or 'kitchen laments pathetic placement of electrical outlets.'"

You can contribute to next year's list—already a work in progress—by going here.

[UPDATE: The link to this year's list is fixed now—sorry!]

Photo credit: squacco on flickr