"Stay the course," the phrase dropped by Bush
administration as it searched for a new policy in Iraq, was declared the
catch phrase of the year on
last Thursday by language use group Global Language Monitor.
"It makes number one because it was declared inoperative," said Global
Language monitor President Paul JJ Payack.
In second place was the ill-fated book title. "If I Did it" by O.J.
Simpson. The idea of O.J. Simpson telling how he would have killed his
ex-wife and her friend if he had actually murdered them outraged so many
people that it was withdrawn. But the phrase was an immediate winner in
the language.
Simpson was found not guilty of the murders in a criminal trial but
held liable the deaths in a civil
proceeding.
In third place was a series of emotion icons used in E-mail and text
messages: "# - )" which Payack said meant "wasted." In fourth was "Airline
Pulp," a Chinese/English hybrid way of describing food served aboard an
airliner.
Serial Texter was fifth, denoting the widespread use of text messages
among the world's youth.