'Collusion' leads list of words to banish in 2019

If the wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University have their way, the vocabulary of President Donald Trump is going to shrink dramatically in 2019.

"Collusion" is among the list of 18 words the university in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, suggested should be banished from our collective vocabularies for overuse, misuse or general uselessness.

It's a word that Trump frequently uses, including in a tweet posted Saturday, that went, in part: "The Russian Collusion fabrication is the greatest Hoax in the history of American politics. The only Russian Collusion was with Hillary and the Democrats!"

The list, which started in 1976 and included the word "Macho," was the brainchild of the late W.T. Rabe, a public relations director at Lake Superior State University. It's been published every year since, with thousands of nominations coming in from across the country, as a way to vent about verbal crutches, pet peeves and phrases that translate like nails on a chalkboard.

December 2017: List bans ‘fake news,’ ‘covfefe’ and ‘let me ask you this’

Other words and phrases to make the list:

Wheelhouse

In the books

Wrap my head around

Platform

OTUS

Ghosting

Yeet

Litigate

Grapple

Eschew

Crusty

Optics

Legally drunk

Thought Leader

Importantly

Accouterments

Most important election of our time

Other words that have made the list in the last decade: on fleek, manspreading, foodie, selfie, YOLO, ginormous, BFF, bromance and staycation.

To submit a word or phrase for next year's list, go to lssu.edu/banished.

Follow Kathleen Gray on Twitter: @michpoligal