Well, I suppose WMD must be on the list. Whether the acronym stands for Weapons of Mass Destruction or Weapons of Mass Deception, I’ll leave to the more politically bent.
Metrosexual is another sorry candidate. In fact, the entire urban yuppie myth is, in my opinion, at the terminal twitching stage. Any yuppie with any sense has long since moved to areas with cheaper accomodation and thus higher disposable income. Apparently, they’re still laboring under the delusion that sex is an urban passtime. For that, at least, I’m thankful.
At the risk of being repetitive, I must laud Coemgenus’ use (coining?) of the word "salamification" in a thread near you. Such a useful word. If only a handful of people have picked up on it so far, I’m still certain we’re ahead of a wave of mass recognition to come. You heard it first on yourdictionary.com’s Agora.
If I think of any more, I’ll post them immediately. That goes without saying.
Sorry Katy, but that sentence does not make any sense to the rest of the planet.
Commitment and committed have flooded the media. The government is committed to [end war, find Saddam, work around environmental problems, ..., endless list here]. The company is committed to [provide a good work environment, satisfy all stakeholders, ..., another endless list here]. Empty words.
I definitely vote for embedded. I would also add the rather old-fashioned word, robust, since the Brits have been making so much of it—a robust denial—a robust campaign. I think it gained popularity during the early stages of the Hutton Enquiry. But it sounds so bloody silly.
I second Tim’s proposal; journalists in bed with the military, contributing to capture the essential truth behind war. I also found this great example of usage in the dictionary.com site: "a minor accuracy embedded in a larger untruth" (Ian Jack). Now, that is appropriate!
Someone has probably suggested this word in some other year but if not, I nominate "apologize." It has lately been used in the most unuslual if not bizarre and even laughable circumstances.
Then there are the "how to say nothing" twins, "appropriate and her shy sister "in." Not used in the sense of acquire but as evasive action. The ultimate end run of the public figure.
The Wrights were not even the first to leave the ground in a powered plane. That honor apparently went to a French sailor whose name has been lost to history. In 1874, Félix du Temple, a French naval officer, watched the steam-powered plane he devised speed down a ski-jump-like ramp and sputter through the air with the guileless young sailor at the helm. (If the pioneers of aviation were smart about anything, it was in their use of surrogates as pilots.) In 1884, an officer in the Imperial Russian Navy, Aleksandr Mozhaisky, also employed a ramp to coax a monoplane into the air for 65 to 100 feet outside St. Petersburg. And in 1890, a French engineer, Clément Adler, was the first to succeed in getting a plane to ascend from level ground; his steam-powered, bat-shaped monoplane traveled 160 feet at a friend’s estate near Paris, and a year later may have gone twice that distance.
Of course, it is one thing to be hurled through the air for a few fleeting moments—what aviation historians call a "hop"—and quite another to make a controlled flight under one’s own power. Control is what the Wright brothers so ably and singularly demonstrated between 1903 and 1906. While other aviation pioneers concentrated on how to power a plane—not a difficult task by the time automobile engines had come into their own—the Wrights focused on how to stabilize it.
For memorable phrases, as opposed to oft-used phrases, "Ladies and gentlemen, weegaaadim" could be considered a candidate, but should be disqualified on the grounds that it is such a flagrant attempt to get into phrases-of-the-year lists!
