The Most Overused Words of the Past Year

There are some words you just can’t avoid no matter how much you might want to and 2013 has had some absolute corkers. Courtesy of BBC News Magazine, here are a handful of some of the most overused (and in many cases most irritating) words of 2013.

1. Twerk, v. Dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance.

The raunchy dance move performed by Miley Cyrus at the MTV VMAs was among the new words added to the Oxford Dictionary of English in August. Borrowed from hip hop culture, the word has become increasingly visible in the past 12 months. In Time magazine's annual word banishment poll the word earned the biggest chunk of votes in the poll's history at nearly 27%, beating the 22% vote for YOLO (you only live once) last year.

2. Selfie, n. A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

"Selfie" was named word of the year by Oxford Dictionaries and those taking part in the trend have included everyone from the Pope to President Obama. Barely a week goes by without celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and Rihanna posting selfies on their Twitter pages. But with research suggesting the frequency of the word selfie in the English language has increased by 17,000% in the last year, the word has had its critics. In a survey in Time magazine of 14 contenders considered for the crown of The Thing You Never Want to Hear Again, selfie came third with 8% of the votes.

3. Hashtag, n. Word or phrase preceded by a hash sign (#), used on social media sites such as Twitter to identify messages on a specific topic.

Twitter made the hashtag big. It came third in Global Language Monitor's 2013 list of the year's top English words. But the words has wheedled its way into spoken phrases such as "hashtag annoying" as well. Buzzfeed has highlighted 14 Uses Of Hashtags That Will Make You Cringe, with some of the worst offenders - #tbt (Throwback Thursday), #yolo (You Only Live Once), #mcm (Man Crush Monday) #hipster and #ootd (Outfit of the Day) - listed in its 13 Hashtags To Leave In 2013.

4. Amazeballs, adj. (slang) An expression of enthusiastic approval.

Some attribute the boom in the word’s popularity to celebrity blogger Perez Hilton with coining the word, citing his campaign to get it trending on Twitter in 2009. Others claim reality TV shows The Only Way is Essex and Made in Chelsea broadcast the word to the masses, with participants often coupling the word with "totes" - that's totally for the uninitiated - in phrases such as "That's, like, totes amazeballs". Comedy duo Jessica & Hunter have also claimed they invented the term. Whatever its origins, the word made it into the Dictionary of Most Annoying Words In The English Language in 2012 and is now widespread on social media.

5. Fail, v. To be or become deficient.

According to Global Language Monitor, which publishes an annual list of the year's top English words, the single word “fail” - “often used as a complete sentence (Fail!) to signify failure of an effort, project or endeavour" was the second most frequently overused word in 2013.

Definitions from the Oxford English, Collins, and Merriam-Webster Dictionaries

To read the full article, visit: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23362207