‘ObamaCare’ makes list of overused words

The term “ObamaCare” made the list of “banished” words for 2014. 

Lake Superior State University on Tuesday released its list of words that tended to be overused or misused in 2013, recommending their banishment in the new year.

{mosads}While the word “selfie” topped the list, political words like “ObamaCare” and the phrase “morally bankrupt” were also included. 

The term “fiscal cliff” overwhelmingly topped the list last year; the university said there was not as much disdain for the term for President Obama’s signature healthcare law. 

“We thought it might rival ‘fiscal cliff,’ the most-nominated phrase on the 2013 list, but it didn’t come close,” the university said of “ObamaCare.”

The list has been produced since 1975 and is culled together mostly from online nominations. 

The term ObamaCare was initially used exclusively by Republicans to denote the healthcare law after it was passed.   

However, during Obama’s reelection campaign last year, Obama and his team began embracing the term, attempting to deflate its derogatory intent.

Many news outlets now use ObamaCare as shorthand for the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which has dominated headlines amid its rollout.   

A Gallup poll last month found that more people tend to disapprove of the healthcare law when it is referred to as ObamaCare. 

“Selfie,” 2013’s top banished word, was also Oxford Dictionary’s word of the year. The term also made its way into the political arena this month, when Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was caught taking a photo of herself with Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service. 

Other words on the list included “twerk,” “hashtag,” “twittersphere” and any word ending with the suffix “-ageddon” or “-pocolypse.”