I was listening to the radio the other day and caught a conversation about why women should not use the word just. I thought about it for a moment. I use this word all the time. Apparently, this trend began with an article by Ellen Leanse, former Google executive. The gist of what bothers Leanse about the word is, “it is a “permission” word – a warm-up to a request, an apology for interrupting.” Women tend to use the word far more than men. This post has received over 3 million views.

I write a few blog posts and I am quite positive I have over-used the word just; If not on my blog posts, certainly in my email correspondence. That is until I heard the radio spot and read some blogs posts about the use of the word. Now I catch myself deleting the word. I don’t know if there is a bit of validity to the negative connotation, but there may be. I looked the word up in the dictionary and it is synonymous to exactly and precisely. Another definition: to an exact degree or in an exact manner. That doesn’t sound apologetic to me. But that is just me. You can find a tremendous number of articles about the use of the word just; both praising the article and condemning it. You can come to your own conclusion. I certainly find it entertaining.