The way we speak is contagious and a tribal form of bonding (like, ya know, totally!). We are all so busy wanting to be part of the tribe that we don’t realize how habitual verbal crutches become – how they take over our speech and the way we present ourselves. It appears that the mindless repetition of filler words has not only become more pervasive but is now a verbal fashion trend.
When you are with your friends, do you find yourself bonding over saying words like “like” all the time? What is this group called?
Ever since I had the epiphany that the use of filler words are at epidemic proportions, and that an app could help us all be better speakers, I have been frustrated by the lack of words to describe this pervasive phenomenon. I needed better words to describe the excessive use of needless words that are undermining our speech.
And thus, The Verbal Habitionary (verbal habit + dictionary) was born. The Verbal Habitionary offers portmanteau words (a blend of words) to give us all the vocabulary to talk about – and find solutions to – this increasingly ubiquitous habit that is undermining our communication, watering down our meaning, and distracting our listeners.
The first entry was Filleritis (Filler + -itis). The second entry, FillerBuster (Filler + Buster). The third entry in The Verbal Habitionary is:
Like + Squad = LIKESQUAD
adjective. A group of friends that bond over the contagious use of “like” in their sentences.
Use it in a sentence, you say?
“Like, we would, like, let you into our LikeSquad if we thought you were, like, cooler!”
Look out for new entries in The Verbal Habitionary, and please send along your own words and ideas!
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