Daily writing prompt
If you could permanently ban a word from general usage, which one would it be? Why?
In general, any word that becomes cliche, so over-used that it carries little to no weight anymore. Lots of words fit this category.
Narrowing it to one is difficult, but the first to come to mind is “devastated,” or “devastating.” People are devastated by so many things– clothes that don’t match, a favorite actor leaves a show, they ran out of maple syrup at Trader Joe’s. It’s misused or hyperbolized (not sure that’s a word) so often that when reporters or survivors at the scene of some natural disaster or a plane crash use the word where it actually fits, it loses some of its punch.
A close second is “traumatized.”
3 Cents' 