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Paul JJ Payack
&Stevie Ray Vaughn

‘Nappy-Headed Ho’
Top Politically inCorrect
Phrase for 2007

Closely followed by ‘Ho-Ho-Ho’ and ‘Carbon Footprint Stomping’

    San Diego and Henderson , NV . March 21, 2008.  ‘Nappy-headed Ho,’’ closely followed by ‘Ho-Ho-Ho’ and ’Carbon Footprint Stomping’ top the list of the most egregious examples of politically inCorrect language found in 2007 by the Global Language Monitor in its annual global survey.   This year’s list includes words and phrases from the US , the UK , Australia , and China .

Shock jock named king of politically incorrect 

    "It is no surprise that a ‘Nappy-headed Ho’ was selected as the Top Politically Incorrect word or phrase for 2007," said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of The Global Language Monitor (GLM).  "A year later that phrase is still ricocheting about the Internet even affecting Christmas-season Santas in Australia."  The list was nominated by the GLM’s Language Police, volunteer language observers from the world over.
    The Top Politically Incorrect Terms and Phrases for previous years include: 

• 2006:  Global Warming Denier
• 2005:  Misguided Criminals
• 2004:  Master/Slave computer jargon

The Top Politically inCorrect Words and Phrases for 2007:
    1.  Nappy-headed Ho's – Radio personality Don Imus' reference to the women on the Rutgers University championship basketball team.  'Nappy' is ultimately derived from the Anglo Saxon hnoppa for the 'wooly substance on the surface of cloth'.  Combined with the word 'ho' -- a derogratory term for women, Imus' comments led to an uproar in the media and ultimately led to his resignation. 
    2.      HoHoHo -- Staffing company in Sydney suggesting to prospective Santas to re-phrase their traditional greeting of "ho, ho, ho" in favor of "ha, ha, ha" so as not be confused with American urban parlance, a derogatory term for women. 
    3.  Carbon footprint stomping – The movement to flaunt carbon-intensive activities such as driving Hummers and flying private jets; a reaction to the Green movement is the height of political inCorrectness.
    4.  Year of the Pig Restrictions – Chinese State Television in Shanghai warns Nestle against Happy Pig New Year ads, foregoing thousands of years of Chinese Tradition, because it might inflame pork-shying minorities.
    5.      Three Little Pigs – according to the BBC, A retelling of the three little pigs fairy tale, called Three Little Cowboy Builders, was excluded from award consideration because judges said that “ the use of pigs raises cultural issues". It was also found to "alienate parts of the workforce (building trade):  "Is it true that all builders are cowboys, builders get their work blown down, and builders are like pigs?"  
    6.      The ‘Race’ Card – Originally a printed card with information about a thoroughbred horse race, now used in 2008 Presidential campaign parlance as in 'playing the race card', meaning intentionally injecting issues of ethnicity into the campaign.  The word 'race' is ultimately derived from the Old High German for lineage.
    7.      "Obesity Is Socially Contagious" -- That was the widely reported headline in the UCSD press release announcing the results of a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that actually came to the opposite conclusion.  One of the study's authors made it worse by stating “It’s spread from person to person like a fashion or a germ … once it starts; it's hard to stop it. It can spread like wildfire."
    8.  Fire-breathing Dragon – Lindsey Gardiner, a leading British children’s author of the popular Lola, Poppy and Max characters, was instructed to eliminate a fire-breathing dragon from her new book because publishers feared they could be sued under health and safety regulations.  
    9.      “Wucha dun did now?” -- Handbook distributed a Houston school district police officer to enable the reader to speak “as if you just came out of the hood”. 
    10.  Gypsy skirt – The worldwide phenomenon of the gypsy, tiered or Boho skirt has a new name:  Traveler’s Skirt, since police in Cornwall believed that the term ‘Gypsy Skirt’ might be considered offensive to this cultural minority.  
    The Global Language Monitor uses a proprietary algorithm, the Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI) to track the frequency of words and phrases in the global print and electronic media, on the Internet, throughout the Blogosphere, as well as accessing proprietary databases.  The PQI is a weighted Index, factoring in: long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum, and velocity.  
GLM is moving its headquarters to Austin , Texas in the coming months.

GLM in Recent Scholarship  

• Body patterns in cephalopods “Polyphenism” as a way of information exchange:  Pattern Recognition Letters, Volume 28, Issue 14
• Word Indexing for Mobile Device Data Representations:  Computer and Information Technology, 2007. CIT 2007
• The Blame Frame: Justifying (Racial) Injustice in America:  Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review
• "noi" e gli "altri": verso un futuro di integrazione e di convivenza:  Societa Dante Alighieri
• Race and Media Coverage of Hurricane Katrina: Analysis, Implications, and Future Research Questions:   Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy
• Can God Intervene?: How Religion Explains Natural Disasters
• As Seen on TV or Was that My Phone? New Media Literacy, CARMEN LUKE University of Queensland, Australia
• Wardhaugh R.An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, fifth Edition Oxford Blackwell Publishers Ltd
• Joao Paulo II: Um Atavista Midiation: Osvaldo Meira Triguerio
• Communicating Gender Diversity: A Critical Approach by Victoria Pruin Defrancisco, Catherine Helen Palczewski,  Published 2007
  Sage Publications
  

Top HollyWORDIEs of 2007
 

“Call it, Friendo,” “I drink your milkshake,” and  "Juno-verse"

San Diego , Calif. March 11, 2008.  “Call it, Friendo” from the multi-Oscar winner No Country for Old Men, ‘Drink your milkshake” from There Will Be Blood, and the various phrasings from what has come to be known as the Juno-verse, from the teen pregnancy sleeper, were named the Top HollyWORDIEs of 2007.  The annual survey by the Global Language Monitor tracks the words from Hollywood that most influenced the English Language.  “Maddness?  This is S-P-A-R-T-A!” from The 300, and "I’m not the guy you kill; I’m the guy you buy off.” from Michael Clayton rounded out the top five.

"Tú decides, amigo" El Pais (Madrid)

“This year, the top HollyWORDS  tended to be phrases rather than individual words as in years past,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor “The selected phrases have already begun to seep into the ‘English language as evidenced by even a cursory web search.”

“High Five!!! Its sexy time!’ from Borat! were the top words of 2006, while 'Brokeback' from Brokeback Mountain , “Pinot” from Sideways, and “wardrobe malfunction” were nabbed for top honors previous to that.

The Top HollyWORDS of 2007 follow:

1.      “Call it, Friendo.” (No Country for Old Men) – Chigurth’s flip of the coin (Javier Bardem). 

2.      “I drink your milkshake.” (There Will Be Blood) – “I drink it up!” Daniel Day Lewis.

3.      Juno-verse (Juno) -- phraseology includes  "doodle that can't be undid,” “Silencio”, and, of course, "Shoulda gone to China , because I hear they give away babies like free iPods."  (Ellen Page).

4.      “Maddness?  This is S-P-A-R-T-A!” (The 300) – Kin Leonardis engages the Persians in Battle (Gerald Butler).

5.      “I’m not the guy you kill; I’m the guy you buy off.” (Michael Clayton) – Michael Clayton’s self description (George Clooney)

6.       “I think I am beginning to disappear.” (Away From Her) --  (Julie Christie)

7.      “Either you're somebody, or you ain't nobody.” (American Gangster) – Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington).

8.      “Squeezin' that watch won't stop time.” (3:10 to Yuma ) – Ben Wade (Russell Crowe)

9.      “Sometimes birth and death go together.”  (Eastern Promises) --  Anna (Naomi Watts)

10.  “It was the things you don't choose that makes you who you are.” (Gone Baby Gone) -- Casey Affleck as Patrick Kenzie


‘Obama’ as a Word Enters the English Language 
 

  Watch the CNN Segment

San Diego, California, (March 3, 2007) The latest word to enter the English language is ‘obama’ in its many variations, according to the Global Language Monitor (GLM),  GLM tracks the growth and evolution of the English language around the globe.  The word is derived from the name, Barack Obama, the Senator from Illinois, and a top contender for the Democratic nomination for the US Presidency.  Obama- is used as a ‘root’ for an ever-expanding number of words, including:  obamamentum, obamaBot (new!), obamacize, obamarama, obamaNation, obamanomics, obamican, obamafy, obamamania, and obamacam.  The list is growing. 
In August 2007, GLM noted that ‘obama’ had become a political buzzword, ranking No. 2 on its Top Political Buzzwords list of the 2008 Presidential Campaign.  Presidential names that have made the leap include Jeffersonian, Lincolnesque, Nixonian, and Clintonesque (referring to former president Bill Clinton).  
Many names have made the leap into the language including OK (from the nickname US President Martin Van Buren “Old Kinderhook”); jacuzzi, kodak, macadam, Caesarian section (after Julius Caesar); decibel (the measure of sound), Hertz, and frisbee.   [Read More.]

Top Words of 2007

History of Top Words of the Year from 2000!
 
‘Hybrid’ bests 'Surge' as Top Word 
‘Climate Change’ is Top Phrase
Al Gore’ is Top Name

• Oxford Analytica on Word of the Year
• NY Times:  Word of the Year for Our Times

San Diego, CA and Henderson, NV (December 13, 2007) ‘Hybrid’ is Top Word, ‘Climate Change’ is Top Phrase, and ‘Gore’ is Top Name atop the Global Language Monitor's annual global survey of the English language. The Top Smiley is ?-) for ‘’pirate’. The most understood word on the planet is the word OK. And the estimated number of words in the English language is 995,115, just 4,884 from the million-word mark.

 

See the Video Announcement of the Top Words of 2007

The analysis was completed using GLM’s Predictive Quantities Indicator (PQI), the proprietary algorithm that tracks words and phrases in the media and on the Internet. The words are tracked in relation to frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets, factoring in long-term trends, short-term changes, momentum and velocity. GLM’s global network of language observers have nominated English-language words throughout the year from the world over.

"The idea of planetary peril and impending climatic doom resonated throughout our linguistic analysis, with the various words and phrases garnering hundreds of millions of citations; in the end this narrowly outdistanced the word 'surge' that also had a disproportionate impact upon 2007's linguistic landscape." said Paul JJ Payack, President of The Global Language Monitor.  For 2007 these words were culled from throughout the English-speaking world which now numbers some 1.35 billion speakers and and now includes such diverse cultures as China, the Philippines, and India.

Why a 'Green' Word was Chosen as WOTY

The Top Ten Words of 2007

1. Hybrid – Actually Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV). Chosen to represent all things green from biodiesel to wearing clothes made of soy, to global warming to living with a zero-carbon footprint. (From the Latin hybrida, a variation of ibrida for  "mongrel," specifically "offspring of a sow and a wild boar,")

2. Surge - The controversial political and military strategy of winning the war in Iraq.

3. Bubble – As in housing bubble, bursting. Also, Credit crunch.

4. Smirting – The new-found art of flirting while being banished outside a building for smoking.

5. Pb – The symbol lead, Atomic No. 82. The culprit in innumerable toy recalls this year.

6. Ideating – Latest in a long line of verbalisms: the descendent of concepting and efforting.

7. Ω-3 (Greek letter omega-3) -- Also written as Omega 3; the healthy fatty acid.

8. Cleavage – As in ‘woman of cleavage,’ a touchy campaign subject.

9.  Amigoization -- Increasing Hispanic influence in California, the Southwest and into the Heartland.

10. Bluetooth – A technology to connect electronic devices by radio waves.

The Top Smiley or Emoticon:   ?-)   The smiley for ‘pirate’, thanks to the Pirates of the Caribbean. Arrrrrgh!

The Top HollyWORD gone global:  Brokeback -- GLM's top HollyWORD of 2006 now recognized by Chinese Ministry of Educations as new word for 'gay,' with ideograms for ‘broke' and 'back'.

The Top Ten Phrases for 2007

1. Climate change – The warming of the Earth’s atmosphere due to natural cycles (politically sensitive; believed to be primarily outside the control of man)

2. ‘Ho-Ho-Ho’ – Santa’s trademark phrase. In Australia officials are suggesting ‘Ha-Ha-Ha’ because the former may scandalize the children.

3. All-time low – The phrase apparently grafted next to the president’s name in the media.

4. Theory of Everything – Garrett Lisi’s especially simple theory of the Universe that unites all forces and gravity in one elegant structure.

5. Planetary Peril – Al Gore’s trademark phrase to describe the Earth’s current condition.

6. Wristband Wagon – Wearing your heart on your … wrist. Pink against breast cancer, red against third-world poverty, ‘camouflage’ (or yellow as in yellow ribbon) to support the troops,

7. No Noising – Chinese/English hybrid (Chinglish) for ‘quiet please!’

8. Fade to black – From the Soprano’s series finale to the Hollywood writers’ strike

9. Fossil Fuels – The enemy of the Greens: Coal, Oil, and Natural Gas (anything hydrocarbon-based).

10. Fashion tribe: Persons who follow a particular fashion with a tribe-like mindset: Examples include EMO, Hip-hop or Goth.

 

The Top Ten Names for 2007

1. Al Gore – Conveniently, doesn’t need the presidency to top the list.

2. The Decider -- George W. Bush, still president after all these years.

3. Bono – U2’s front man out in front on Third World debt relief.
4. Obama & Hillary -- Barack’s name now qualifies as a buzzword; quite unusual, though Hil comes close.
5. Hugo Chavez – The Gadfly of Latin America
6. Vladimir Putin -- The supreme leader (President, Prime Minister, whatever) of the Russian Federation.

7. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- Iranian President suggests moving Israel to Europe.

8. Pope Benedict XVI -- continues to engage Muslim leadership in thoughtful discussions.

9. David Beckham and Posh Spice – Yet another ‘new’ type of Hollywood power couple.

10. Fidel Castro – The head one of the few remaining Communist states lives yet another year.

Most Understood Word on the Planet: O.K.
Popularized by US President (1837 -1841) Martin Van Buren's nickname, Old Kinderhook, from his birthplace in New York State. His re-election slogan was 'Martin Van Buren is O.K'.

 

Recent Headlines
Colleen Ross (CBC) on Chinglish:  Lost in Translation
Nikki Tundel (MPR) on Climate Change
RAI UNO on GLM's Top Fashion Capitals
Ryan Smith (The Blade) on 1,000,000 words
Joe Burris (The Sun) on Four-letter Words
ZDnet on the Most Confusing Acronym (SOA)
NY Times' Safire finally acknowledges existence of HollyWords  that GLM has been highlighting since 2004
Ben MacIntyre (London Times) on sexiness of large vocabulary
Wikipedeia: GLM citation named as Landmark in its history
Hindustan Times:  Arabs ahead of the English in cyberspace?

Der Spiegel: Chinglish Die Sache mit dem ding

Top 10 Most Confusing High Tech Terms
San Diego, Calif. and Henderson, NV October 16, 2007. In a worldwide internet and media analysis, The Global Language Monitor has found the most confusing yet frequently cited high tech buzzwords in 2007 to be iPOD, Flash, Cookie, Nano and Kernel followed by Megahertz, Cell (cell as in cell phone), Plasma, De-duplication, and Blu-Ray.  Read More.
To see the Video Announcement, Click on Herr (Mega)Hertz..
 

 Top Television Buzzwords of 2007

 

San Diego. September 16, 2007. (Updated) The Global Language Monitor (www.LanguageMonitor.com) named “Surge” from the Iraq War political and military strategy, “That’s Hot®” Paris Hilton’s popular expression that is now a registered trademark, “D’oh!” from The Simpsons and The Simpsons Movie, and "Blackout" from the Sopranos series finale as the top television buzzwords impacting Global English for the 2007 Season. Video Read More

To see the Video Announcement, click on the image above.

Top Political Buzzwords of 2008 Election
San Diego, California (August 20, 2007) (Updated) The Top Political Buzzwords for the first seven months of 2007 were named earlier today by the Global Language Monitor (GLM) in its first ranking of the 2008 presidential campaign.   To see the Video Announcement, click on the image below.
. Political buzzwords are terms of phrases that become loaded with emotional freight beyond the normal meaning of the word.  For example, the word surge has been in the English-language vocabulary since time immemorial.  However, in its new context as an Iraq War strategy, it inspires a set of emotions far beyond the norm.  Read More

Top Fashion Capitals of 2007
To see the Video Announcement, click above. 
San Diego. August 1, 2007. The Top Fashion Cities of 2007 have been named by the Global Language Monitor in its annual global survey. Topping the list for 2007 are New York, Rome, Paris, London, Milan, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, and Singapore.  [Read More.]

 

Hollywords:  Top Words Impacting English Language in 2007
San Diego. March 5, 2007. ‘High Five!!! Its sexy time!’ from Borat! and 'Hollywood Baby Names' from the Celebrity Cultural Milieu, have been named Top Words from Hollywood impacting the English Language.  Closely following were 'Pursuit,' from Will Smith's 'Pursuit of Happyness', 'Nazi Bullets,' from 'Little Miss Sunshine,' and ‘I will not serve!’ Frank Costello’s driving force in The Departed. Read more

Top Bushisms of 2006:  'I'm the decider' and ‘I use The Google’
San Diego, California (January 22, 2007) The Top Bushisms for 2006 were released earlier today. Topping the 'List were "I'm the decider“ referring to his rejection of the request from seven former generals for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to step down and “I use The Google,” in reference to the popular search engine. Read More

Top Words of 2006:  ‘Sustainable’, ‘Stay the Course’, ‘Darfur’, and 'Yoof Speak' 
San Diego, California (January 1, 2007) ‘Sustainable’ is Top Word, ‘Stay the Course’ is Top Catchphrase, ‘Darfur’ is the Top Name, and 'Yoof Speak' is Top Youth Speak atop the Annual List .  ‘Sustainable,’ ‘Stay the Course,’ and ‘Darfur’ were chosen as the Top Word, Phrase, and Name of the year.  Read More.

Washington Post's Millionth Word Contest Results Here

Other Language Stats: Number, Top Ten, On the Internet, by Country, etc.

 The Million Word March: 900,000 and Counting! Listen to Day-to-Day (NPR) 

People's Daily (China): Many Chinglish into English

The Sunday Times (London): Chinglish -- It's a word in a million

Connecticut Post:Getting the word out -- for the Millionth Time

Enumerating English: Geoffrey Nunberg (NPR/Fresh Air) Can't Count Words; Who Cares!?

Global English by Neil Reynolds: Spread the Word, English is Unstoppable

Read More About Names and Naming

Read More About Global YouthSpeak

Read More About OK

Top Politically inCorrect Words for 2006:  Macaca, Global Warming Denier, & Herstory
San Diego, California (December 16, 2006) Macaca, Global Warming Denier, Herstory and Flip Chart top the list of the most egregious examples of politically correct language found in 2006. [Read More.]

'No Noising' and 'Airline Pulp' named Top Chinglish Words of 2006
San Diego, Calif. November 22, 2006. 'No Noising' and 'Airline Pulp' have been named the Top Chinglish Words of 2006 in The Global Language Monitor's annual survey of the Chinese-English hybrid words known more commonly as Chinglish.  Read more.

Independent News (London):  Chinglish Phrases on the Rise

How 9/11 Changed the Way Americans Speak:  Have we turned the attack inward, upon ourselves, and our institutions? [More.]

'Truthiness' and 'Wikiality' Named Top TV Words

San Diego, Calif. August 27, 2006. ‘Truthiness' from the multi-Emmy nominated 'Colbert Report' was named the Top TeleWORD of the year in that profoundly influenced the English Language. In an unprecedented move, 'Wikiality,' also from the Colbert Report was named No. 2.  Read More.

USAToday:  Colbert's 'Truthiness' Strikes a Chord

MSNBC:  'Truthiness' Among Top TV Buzzwords of the Year  


We're all speaking Geek: Ben Macintyre, August 13, 2006.  The world wide web, which turned 15 this week, has given us a fantastic outpouring of new words. FIFTEEN YEARS after the birth of the world wide web, the lines of battle are clear. [Read More.]

  HollyWORDS:  Just Plain Bill banned in Hollywood
  Name Game 

  As War Evolves so Does Language: 'Mission
  accomplished' has now become synonymous with
  miscalculations (Baltimore Sun)

  Read More
 
  Meaning of the Name of TomKat's Daughter
 
  Washington Post:  Cruise baby name has many  
  meanings, expert says Reuters 
  It's a Nubian tribe, the word for "rose" in Persian, the "sun" in Sanskrit
  and, oh yes, it's also an obscure variation on the Hebrew name Sarah 
  and refers to form of an Alpaca's wool. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
  may have gotten more than they bargained for naming their daughter
  Suri when she was born on Tuesday...Read more.

' Brokeback' named Top HollyWORD of 2006, Followed
  by 'Brangelina’, ‘Petronoia,' and ‘Tuxedo’
 San Diego. Updated March 5, 2006. ‘Brokeback’ from multi-Oscar
  nominated film 'Brokeback Mountain' was named the Top HollyWORD,  
  closely following were ‘Brangelina’ from ‘Mr. & Mrs. mith,’ ‘ ‘Petronoia’
  from ‘Syriana,’ ‘Tuxedo’ from ‘March of the Penguins,’ and ‘Pimping’
  from “Hustle & Flow’. Read More.

London Sunday Times: 
And now, the first grown-up Oscar speech

Click Here.
Bonus: The Grade Level Data of Selected Oscar Acceptance Speeches 

The New York Times: The Real Estate Bubble -- The Power of Words

Click here.

Bonus:  All the PQI Data Behind The New York Times Article 

Heckova job, Brownie!' Tops List of 2005 Bushisms
San Diego, California (December 30, 2005) The Top Bushisms for 2005 were released earlier today.  FEMA director Michael Brown; "In my line of work you've got ... to kind of catapult the propaganda" explaining his Communications strategy; and "I think I may need a bathroom break. Is this possible?" scribbled on a note to Secretary of State Condi Rice. Read More.

Top Words of 2005:  'Refugee', 'Outside the Mainstream' and '(Acts of) God' San Diego, California (December 16, 2005) Refugee, Outside the Mainstream, and (Acts of) God were selected as leading the Top Word, Phrase and NameLists of 2005. Read More.

Click here to read The World Press Summary of the Top Events of 2005

Top Politically inCorrect Words for 2005:  Misguided Criminals, Intrinsic appitude and Thought Shower
San Diego, California (Updated November 29, 2005)  Misguided Criminals, Intrinsic Aptitude, and Thought Shower  top the list of the most egregious examples of politically correct language found in 2005.  Read More.

Click here to Watch WCCO's Video (Minneapolis)

Click here to Read and Listen to the Chinese Radio Int'l (CRI) Report