Spoiler alert: This story contains words and phrases that some people want to ban from the English language. "Spoiler alert" is among them. So are "kick the can down the road," `'trending" and "bucket list." 
 
 A dirty dozen have landed on the 38th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. The nonbinding, tongue-in-cheek decree released Monday by northern Michigan's Lake Superior State University is based on nominations submitted from the United States, Canada and beyond. 
 
 "Spoiler alert," the seemingly thoughtful way to warn readers or viewers about looming references to a key plot point in a film or TV show, nevertheless passed its use-by date for many, including Joseph Foly, of Fremont, California. He argued in his submission the phrase is "used as an obnoxious way to show one has trivial information and is about to use it, no matter what." 
 
 At the risk of further offense, here's another spoiler alert: The phrase receiving the most nominations this year is "fiscal cliff," banished because of its overuse by media outlets when describing across-the-board federal tax increases and spending cuts that economists say could harm the economy in the new year without congressional action. 
 
 "You can't turn on the news without hearing this," said Christopher Loiselle, of Midland, Michigan, in his submission. "I'm equally worried about the River of Debt and Mountain of Despair." 
 
 Other terms coming in for a literary lashing are "superfood," `'guru," `'job creators" and "double down." 
 
 University spokesman Tom Pink said that in nearly four decades, the Sault Ste. Marie school has "banished" around 900 words or phrases, and somehow the whole idea has survived rapidly advancing technology and diminishing attention spans. 
 
 Nominations used to come by mail, then fax and website, he said, and now most come through the university's Facebook page. That's fitting, since social media has helped accelerate the life cycle of certain words and phrases, such as this year's entry "YOLO" _ "you only live once." 
 
 "The list surprises me in one way or another every year, and the same way every year: I'm always surprised how people still like it, love it," he said. 
 
 Rounding out the list are "job creators/creation," `'boneless wings" and "passion/passionate." Those who nominated the last one say they are tired of hearing about a company's "passion" as a substitute for providing a service or product for money. 
 
 Andrew Foyle, of Bristol, England, said it's gotten to the point where "passion" is the only ingredient that keeps a chef from preparing "seared tuna" that tastes "like dust swept from a station platform." 
 
 "Apparently, it's insufficient to do it ably, with skill, commitment or finesse," Foyle said. "Passionate, begone!" 
 
 As usual, the etymological exercise _ or exorcise _ only goes so far. Past lists haven't eradicated "viral," "amazing," `'LOL" or "man cave" from everyday use. 
 
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 Follow Jeff Karoub on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub ||||| Before passing comment on someone's "baby bump," take a pregnant pause. Likewise, give up promoting "shared sacrifice." And if you're tempted to proclaim your desire to "win the future," you've lost it here in the present. 
 
 Michigan's Lake Superior State University is featuring those phrases in its annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. The 2012 list, released Friday, was compiled by the university from nominations submitted from across the globe. 
 
 What else do the syntactical Scrooges want to cast out with the good cheer in the new year? The list also includes "occupy," "ginormous," "man cave" and "the new normal." 
 
 In all, a dozen words or phrases made the 37th end-of-the year list. The list started as a publicity ploy by the school's public relations department on New Year's Day 1976, and has since generated tens of thousands of nominations. 
 
 "Amazing" received more than 1,500 nominations, the most of any on this year's list. Disdain for the superlative was apparently universal among English speakers, garnering disparaging dispatches from across the United States and even the United Kingdom and Israel. 
 
 While it lacked a single pop-culture culprit, such as the proliferating protest movement that occupied the word "occupy" or the collective ooh-ing and aah-ing that accompanied Beyonce's "baby bump," nominations to banish "amazing" cite its overuse on reality television and by daytime talk show hosts. Social media also spurred the call to surrender the word's conversational credentials, notably through a Facebook page called "Overuse of the Word Amazing." 
 
 "The word has been overused to describe things only slightly better than mundane," Alyce-Mae Alexander of Maitland, Fla., wrote in her nomination. "I blame Martha Stewart because to her, EVERYTHING is amazing!" 
 
 University spokesman John Shibley said he and his colleagues were surprised that "amazing" hadn't already graced the archive of about 900 banished words. 
 
 "The simple ones are always the ones that get through the cracks _ until this year," he said. 
 
 Other terms circulating for years that have finally raised enough ire to earn a spot on the list include "blowback," "man cave," "the new normal" and "thank you in advance." The last one particularly annoys Mike Cloran of Cincinnati, Ohio. 
 
 "This is a condescending and challenging way to say, `Since I already thanked you, you have to do this,'" Cloran wrote in his submission. 
 
 Lake Superior State University, located in Sault St. Marie _ the last stop before Michigan's northernmost border-crossing with Canada _ has seen its list survive despite many banished words stubbornly clinging to the language. For evidence, look no further than last year's "fail," "viral" and "a-ha moment." And then there is, well, blowback from critics who can't take a little tongue-in-cheek critique. 
 
 Shibley said some people have missed the point over the years and complained that the list is an effort to control the language. But most seem to receive it in good cheer, rather than with jeers. 
 
 "A lot of people can take this wrong. We don't mean any malice when we publish it," Shibley said. "If it makes you angry, it gets you thinking about language. If it gets you laughing, it gets you thinking about language. It's done its job _ to get you to think about how you express yourself." 
 
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 Online: 
 
 Lake Superior State University's banished words: http://www.lssu.edu/banished 
 
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 Jeff Karoub can be reached at http://twitter.com/jeffkaroub ||||| Lake Superior State University's 42nd Annual List of Banished Words 
 
 The wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University have taken their best "guesstimate" and released LSSU's 42nd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness. 
 
 "Overused words and phrases are a 'bête noire' for thousands of users of the 'manicured' Queen's English," said an LSSU spokesperson, who released the 'historic' list during a town hall meeting. "We hope our modest 'listicle' will figure 'bigly' in most 'echo chambers' around the world." 
 
 LSSU's word banishment tradition is now in its fifth decade, and was started by the late W. T. Rabe, a public relations director at Lake Superior State University. 
 
 Rabe and fellow LSSU faculty and staff came up with the first list of words and phrases that people love to hate at a New Year's Eve party in 1975, publishing it on Jan. 1, 1976. Though he and his friends created the first list from their own pet peeves about language, Rabe said he knew from the volume of mail he received in the following weeks that the group would have no shortage of words and phrases from which to choose for 1977. Since then, the list has consisted entirely of nominations received from around the world throughout the year. 
 
 Through the years, LSSU has received tens of thousands of nominations for the list, which now includes more than 850 entries. This year's list is culled from nominations received mostly through the university's website. 
 
 Word-watchers target pet peeves from everyday speech, as well as from the news, fields of education, technology, advertising, politics and more. A committee makes a final cut in late December. Compilers hope this year's list is "on fleek." 
 
 And now, the 2017 list: 
 
 You, Sir - Hails from a more civilized 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. 
 
 Bête Noire - After consulting a listing of synonyms, we gather this to be a bugbear, pet peeve, bug-boo, pain, or pest to our nominators. 
 
 Town Hall Meeting - Candidates seldom debate in town halls anymore. Needs to be shown the door along with "soccer mom(s)" and "Joe Sixpack" (banned in 1997). 
 
 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. 
 
 Historic - Thrown around far too much. What's considered as such is best left to historians rather than the contemporary media. 
 
 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. 
 
 On Fleek - Anything that is on-point, perfectly executed, or looking good. Needs to return to its genesis: perfectly groomed eyebrows. 
 
 Bigly - Did the candidate say "big league" or utter this 19th-Century word that means, in a swelling blustering manner? Who cares? Kick it out of the echo chamber! 
 
 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 chiseled-body male ideal. Should not empower dads to pursue a sedentary lifestyle. 
 
 Listicle - Numbered or bulleted list created primarily to generate views on the Web, LSSU's word-banishment list excluded. 
 
 "Get your dandruff up . . . " - The Committee is not sure why this malapropism got nominators' dander up in 2016. 
 
 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. 
 
 Disruption - Nominators are exhausted from 2016's disruption. When humanity looks back on zombie buzzwords, they will see disruption bumping into other overused synonyms for change. 
 
 View / Add comments on our Banished Words Facebook page 
 
 Lake Superior State University, in the heart of Pure Michigan and the Great Lakes, overlooks the St. Mary’s River and northern Ontario, Canada in Sault Ste. Marie, is Michigan's smallest public university with an enrollment of approximately 2,100 students. It is known for its academic programs such as fisheries and wildlife management, engineering, nursing, criminal justice, fire science, teaching, and much more. LSSU students enjoy the personal attention they receive from their professors both in the classroom and in the field, and all North American students at LSSU pay Michigan resident tuition under our “One-rate at Lake State” program. For more information, visit lssu.edu/admissions. 
 
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– It's the end of another year, and thus time for Michigan's Lake Superior State University to release its 38th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse, and General Uselessness. The dozen words and phrases that made this year's cheeky list, per the AP: Spoiler alert Kick the can down the road Trending Bucket list Superfood Guru Job creators Double down YOLO ("You only live once") Boneless wings Passion/passionate, particularly when used by companies And the submission receiving the most nominations: fiscal cliff Click to see the "amazing" words that made last year's list.