Horrible words

The Economists' language blog, Johnson, takes a post from the magazine's style guide on horrible words.

Words that are horrible to one writer may not be horrible to another, but if you are a writer for whom no words are horrible, you would do well to take up some other activity. No words or phrases should be banned outright from appearing in print, but if you use any of the following you should be aware that they may have an emetic effect on some of your readers:

carer and most caring expressions
chattering classes
facilitate
famously
Governance
grow the business
guesstimate
informed (as in his love of language informed his memos)
leverage
likely (meaning probably, rather than probable)
looking to
materiel
poster child
prestigious
proactive
rack up (profits etc)
savvy
segue
source (meaning obtain)
stakeholder


Facilitate, proactive and leverage are at the top of my list.