The Word Banishment Committee of Lake Superior State University has a message for the technically savvy this year — put down your app and chillax on the tweets, people.

App, tweet and chillax are just three of the 15 words the committee has nominated for retirement from the English language in a list released Thursday.

Every year the university in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., nominates a list of overused words, based on nominations from the public.

Several of this year's most hated phrases stem from the recession, including the phrase "in these economic times," and much-repeated terms such as stimulus, toxic assets and too big to fail.

Whatever happened to grants, instead of stimulus and debts, or bad investments instead of toxic assets, readers suggested. If there was anything these economic times proved, it was that nothing is too big to fail.

"What next, can I go down to the local bar and down a few drinks and call it a stimulus package?" said Richard Brown of Portland, Ore., in his submission to the committee.

Particular ire was heaped on tweet and all of its variations — tweetaholic, retweet, twitterhea, twitterature, twittersphere — and on app, an abbreviation for application.

Another technology peeve was the term sexting, meaning sending sexually explicit pictures and text messages through a cellphone.

"Any dangerous new trend that also happens to have a clever mashup of words, involves teens, and gets television talk show hosts interested must be banished," said Ishmael Daro of Saskatoon, Sask.

Other hated words, according to the committee, are:

  • Shovel ready: bury this term.
  • Transparency: a buzzword that means the politicians are not telling you something.
  • Czar, as in baseball czar, transportation czar.
  • Friend, when used as a verb, as in friending or unfriending through Facebook.
  • Teachable moment.
  • Bromance, meaning a friendship between men.
  • Chillax, choose either chill out or relax.
  • Words made out of Obama, such as Obamanomics, Obamanation, Obamafication, Obamacare, Obamalicious, Obamaland.

In the past, the committee has banished terms such as 24/7, happy camper, LOL and state of the art, but they stubbornly remain in popular use.