The wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University are giving back to English speakers everywhere with their 33rd annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.

This year's list derives from more than 2,000 nominations received through the university's website, www.lssu.edu/banished. Word-watchers target pet peeves from everyday speech, as well as from the news, education, technology, advertising, politics, sports and more. A committee makes a final cut in late December. The list is released on New Year's Day.

PERFECT STORM - "Overused by the pundits on evening TV shows to mean just about any coincidence." - Lynn Allen, Warren, Michigan.

WEBINAR - A seminar on the web about any number of topics.
"Ouch! It hurts my brain. It should be crushed immediately before it spreads." - Carol, Lams, Michigan.

POST 9/11 - "'Our post-9/11 world,' is used now, and probably used more, than AD, BC, or Y2K, time references. You'd think the United States didn't have jet fighters, nuclear bombs, and secret agents, let alone electricity, 'pre-9/11.'" - Chazz Miner, Midland, Michigan.

ORGANIC - Overused and misused to describe not only food, but computer products or human behavior, and often used when describing something as "natural," says Crystal Giordano of Brooklyn, New York.

SURGE - "'Surge' has become a reference to a military build-up. Give me the old days, when it referenced storms and electrical power." - Michael F. Raczko, Swanton, Ohio.

GIVE BACK - "This oleaginous phrase is an emergency submission to the 2008 list. The notion has arisen that as one's life progresses, one accumulates a sort of deficit balance with society which must be neutralized by charitable works or financial outlays. Are one's daily transactions throughout life a form of theft?" - Richard Ong, Carthage, Missouri.

'BLANK' is the new 'BLANK' or 'X' is the new 'Y' - In spite of statements to the contrary, 'Cold is (NOT) the new hot,' nor is '70 the new 50.' The idea behind such comparisons was originally good, but we've all watched them spiral out of reasonable uses into ludicrous ones and it's now time to banish them from use. Or, to phrase it another way, 'Originally clever advertising is now the new absurdity!'" - Lawrence Mickel, Coventry, Connecticut.

BACK IN THE DAY - "Back in the day, we used 'back-in-the-day' to mean something really historical. Now you hear ridiculous statements such as 'Back in the day, people used Blackberries without Blue Tooth.'" - Liz Jameson, Tallahassee, Florida.

RANDOM - Popular with teenagers in many places.
"Over-used and usually out of context, i.e. 'You are so random!' Really? Random is supposed to mean 'by chance.' So what I said was by chance, and not by choice?" - Gabriel Brandel, Farmington Hills, Michigan.

POP - "On every single one of the 45,000 decorating shows on cable TV (of which I watch many) there is at LEAST one obligatory use of a phrase such as ... 'the addition of the red really makes it POP.' You know when it's coming ... you mouth it along with the decorator. There must be some other way of describing the addition of an interesting detail." - Barbara, Arlington, Texas.

UNDER THE BUS - "For overuse. I frequently hear this in the cliché-filled sports world, where it's used to describe misplaced blame - i.e. 'After Sunday's loss, the fans threw T.O. under the bus." - Mark R. Hinkston, Racine, Wisconsin.