My beloved aunt, my mother’s sister, was a Southerner, what one might have called a “genteel woman” who was never harsh but could be stern. There would be no thought of using a curse word; Heaven forfend! When the men cursed she said it was “a mite tee-jus” to have to listen.  Should any of the children drop a forbidden word, my aunt’s stern look could silence the wind. My mother, on the other hand, was a bit more aggressive.  Drop a forbidden word and you got your mouth washed out with soap. My brother and I tried to circumvent the soap bar by inventing our own swear words for which Mother could not possibly reprimand us.  We invented meddadew.  It might have been the giggles after saying it that resulted in a mouth full of soap.

In addition to all of our cussing, cursing, dirty words, and the ripe Anglo-Saxon four letter ones, we are now blessed with a rich vocabulary of unacceptable things to say. The thing about many swear words is that, if used frequently enough, they move from obscene, to unacceptable, to impolite, to common at soccer matches.

Now, thanks to the current administration, we have words that are moving in the other direction;  perfectly acceptable words fit for very polite or stiffly academic company, now banned.  As I tune-in to my next Chelsea FC (English Premier League) match, I intend to shout the now banned words. 

Oh!  Flouride!!
Hey #9 — clean fuel that ball!
Come on guys, where is your allyship?
Winger, get your sediment together!
H5N1 formation – whyever??

Take that, you biogas administration! We nurses will take your list and inclusive it. 

The task that now faces nurses is to attempt to use all the banned words, as frequently as possible, and to have nursing’s core words added to the list.  I am sad that meddadew won’t make the list, but at least we can work to get social determinants of health, access to care, preventive health care, public health, food security/hunger, well being, health as a right, human dignity, human rights, preventable deaths, morbidity and mortality, universal access, and reproductive rights, on the banned list.  The words that offend this administration are words that nest in the heart of nursing and its concern for the health and well-being of the nation and the common good. Use them with joy, and abandon, and all the fuel cells that you can muster – they are who we are.

Below you will find the current list of banned words and links to a pdf of the words and to the Pen America source of the list.  I would encourage you to download the list, put it on your fridge, where all proper lists belong, and attempt to use these words every day.  If you reach ten uses of any one banned word in one day you may add a little star next to it. If you have ten uses in 2 categories (see blog of 28 May) you may add or draw a gold star on the list. Ten stars and you may write in big, bold letters, MEDDADEW at the top of the list. An additional exercise: prepare a list of nursing’s social justice, sex, reproduction, gender, health, disability, environment, and climate words offensive to this administration, that you would like to have added to the banned words list. You may add one small star for every ten words on the to-be-banned list. I hope to see a heaven’s-load of stars in your fridge’s future!

Download PDF of this list. This list was published on March 21, 2025, and is being updated regularly at https://pen.org/banned-words-list/