'The small college in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, released on Friday its annual list of "banished words" - terms so overused, misused and hackneyed they deserve to be sent to a permanent linguistic trash can in the year ahead. "Viral," often used to describe the rapid spreading of videos or other content over the Internet, leads the list for 2011.

"This linguistic disease of a term must be quarantined," Kuahmel Allah of Los Angeles said in making a nomination. Runners-up included "epic" and "fail," often twinned to describe a blunder of monumental proportions. A total of 14 words were on the list. Clichéd terms such as "wow factor," "a-ha moment," "back story" and "BFF" (Best Friends Forever) rated highly. The very au courant use of "Facebook" and "Google" as verbs got a thumbs down as well.

As usual, election-cycle zingers and catchwords quickly look as worn out as last year's campaign posters. In that vein, voters suggested the banning of "Mama Grizzlies," used to describe right-wing female politicians in the mold of Sarah Palin, and "man up," famously used by Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharon Angle in a testy debate with Democrat Harry Reid and a favorite Palin expression as well.