Can we eliminate the word--proverbial?

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I have no use for the word, proverbial. I just finished reading a memoir (written by a distant relative) in which she used the word proverbial constantly. It was the proverbial this and the proverbial that.

The proverbial garbage? The proverbial car?

I think writers use the word, proverbial, as an excuse when they know their writing has too many cliches. Adding this unnecessary word makes the editor in me want to take a pen and cross it out, even if it is in a finished book. I'd rather read an unapologetic cliche.

Is there anyway we can contact the dictionary and just ban it?
 

mscelina

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I have no use for the word, proverbial. I just finished reading a memoir (written by a distant relative) in which she used the word proverbial constantly. It was the proverbial this and the proverbial that.

The proverbial garbage? The proverbial car?

I think writers use the word, proverbial, as an excuse when they know their writing has too many cliches. Adding this unnecessary word makes the editor in me want to take a pen and cross it out, even if it is in a finished book. I'd rather read an unapologetic cliche.

Is there anyway we can contact the dictionary and just ban it?

The proverbial short answer-- NO.

The proverbial not-quite-as-short-answer--Writers don't ban words. Idiots ban words.
 

Haggis

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The proverbial short answer-- NO.

The proverbial not-quite-as-short-answer--Writers don't ban words. Idiots ban words.

No. We can't. Suck it up.

Proverbially, of course.

Thus the uselessness of the
annual List of Words to Be Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.
Rather than banning these words, Lake Superior State University effectively celebrates them.

eta: proverbially.
 

Ken

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... only heard this word used once, when my friend and I got fired from a job for taking too many breaks. "You could've just given us a warning instead of giving us the proverbial axe," said my friend to the boss. Actually we deserved to be canned. I think we took about 10 breaks in one day ;-)
 

TerzaRima

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Adding this unnecessary word makes the editor in me want to take a pen and cross it out, even if it is in a finished book.

Just any ballpoint within reach, or the proverbial red pen?