26 Jun Words we don’t say

When Hugo Lindgren took over as editor of New York in 1997, he found the magazine’s staff grieving over the firing of his predecessor, Kurt Andersen, now a best-selling novelist. Now top dog at the New York Times Magazine, Lindgren reports that Andersen unwittingly left behind a gift.

Tacked to the bulletin board in the office I took over was a single page titled “Words We Don’t Say.” It contained, as you might surmise, words and phrases that Kurt found annoying and didn’t want used in his magazine.

The list [pdf] stands up pretty well, but I’ll bet Contrarian readers could nominate a few submissions. I would allow indie, and nominate the following additions:

Journey (except meaning “long trip”)
The rest, as they say, is history
Speak to [a topic]

After the jump, the original list:

Authored
Bigs (meaning “prominent people”)
Bistro (okay in restaurant reviews, but sparingly)
Boast (meaning “have”)
Celeb
Comely
Comfort Food
Decidedly
Duo
Don (meaning “put on”)
Dubbed
Eatery
Eponymous
Fin de Siecle
Flicks
Graced
Hails from
Hubby
Indie
Intone
Lifestyle
Maven
New York’s Finest
Overly
Penned
Queried (meaning “asked”)
sentences beginning Result: or Reason:
Scripted
Sport (as a verb)
Staffed/Staffer
Tapped (meaning “chosen”)
, um,
, uh,
, well,
A Who’s Who of
Zeitgeist