Tired Phrases? The Remedy is the Thesaurus of Course.

It has been reported that the two most tired, reviled expressions used in 2012 were the acronym YOLO (You Only Live Once) and the politician’s term for the U.S. convergence of various tax and financial policies known as the “fiscal cliff.”   I won’t argue the validity of this assertion, as one of my favorite commercials states, “if it’s on the Internet, it must be true.” (See this blog post on the Worst Words of 2012 for a great summary of these worn out expressions.)

Apt versus Overused

We are all guilty of using popular idioms. After all, there’s a reason they become popular – such phrases must quite adequately convey the person’s point or capture the subject under discussion.  (And if YOLO and “fiscal cliff” were overused in 2012 it supports our belief that the only certainties in life are death and taxes, right?) But popular expressions, like pop songs, are overplayed.  Using them to the extreme begins to reflect poorly on the speaker/writer  and  indicates laziness or lack of creativity.

The Remedy

The remedy is so simple, isn’t it? The Thesaurus and Dictionary are right at our fingertips, a mouse click away.  One of my favorite discoveries on my Kindle, for example, is resting my finger on an unknown word for just a few seconds…..and voila! up pops the definition and pronunciation.  It’s magic! It’s so easy!  I literally don’t have to “lift a finger” to expand my vocabulary.

Alternative Words and Phrases

I’d like to suggest some alternative words and phrases from my own list of “tired” expressions, below.  Please feel free to add and suggest your own. (I am particularly in need of some alternatives to a few choice curses, but this is not an appropriate forum for that, obviously.)

• Awesome: (I still use this way, way too much.) How about “grand” or “breathtaking”? (I still prefer awesome somehow.)
• Amazing: (See “awesome” above…) Do you like “astonishing” better? I might use this in a written piece, but I’m not sure I’ve ever uttered the word “astonishing” out loud, in a conversation.  I’ll have to try that, just to see if I get weird looks.
• Dude:  The Thesaurus suggested “Fella.”  Nope – that is not going to work.  When saying “fella” you can’t elongate it like “duuuuuude.” 
• Whatever: The Thesaurus suggests using “suchlike.” I can’t picture my 14-year-old rolling her eyes and turning on her heel mumbling “suchlike” at me.
• Literally: The bible of language suggests “plainly’ here.  This one is another word that is overused by the teen set, so as a practical matter, I do not envision “plainly” becoming firmly embraced.
• Call Me Maybe: How about, don’t call me.  Just don’t.  And can we retire the silly pinky-thumb-to-the-ear-hand-gesture that goes along with it?

Time also did a great summary of some of the expressions and silly trends from 2012 that should be permanently retired.  I agree with this list, although I was not guilty of overusing a good portion of them.