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One of my first memories of a spoken word was “iota.” My dad said “iota” a lot. I thought they were our neighbors. He later explained that “iota” was the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet, but that didn’t help much. Who were the “iotas”? What did “not one iota” mean? Where they bad people?

Okay, phrases come and go. You only hear “it’s a matter of life and death” on old movies. Who says “writing on the wall” when we’re all on the internet?

Many one word statements continue to be overused generation after generation: “absolutely” and “really” are good ones.

Fad phrases are fun. “Going rogue” was effective for Sarah Palin and Tina Fey.

I don’t like people who use “people” as an attention-getter as in “listen, people” or “okay, people.”

I sometimes say “whatever” when someone is talking too much and there is no point in continuing the conversation—it is more polite than saying “blah, blah, blah” which I have done on occasion. Okay, maybe there is a more tactful way of addressing a vacuous discussion, whatever.