Words that should be 'out' in 2025

There's some good news and some bad news.

- Birjees Hussain

Good news is that there are certain slang terms that are no longer acceptable to some University Academics in 2026 and they are calling for them to be banished from the English Language.Last Saturday I was out walking and I passed a group of children between the ages of 8 and 13. They were talking amongst themselves and I distinctly heard ‘6,7’ being muttered over and over again. Then I remembered hearing about this new slang that was coined by some rapper after which it came into the common teenage vernacular. It just means ‘nothing’. But I ask you, what’s wrong with the word ‘nothing’ if it’s nothing? I am always irritated when the English language is being butchered and not just by children but grown adults who say they've been to university. Unfortunately nothing useful is being added to it except awful slang which seems to be replacing the perfectly good words. Like me, many university academics think ‘6,7" actually is nothing and is, therefore, rightly so on a list of words that should be banished.