Top 10 Politically Correct Words of 2005

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A ban on the use of the word "mate" in federal Parliament House has made an international tongue-in-cheek list of the year's top 10 most politically-correct words and phrases.

In 2005, some people wanted the word "brainstorming" replaced by "thought shower" so as not to offend people with brain disorders, and they also wanted "deferred success" to replace "failure" so as not to embarrass those who do not succeed.

The list was issued by Global Language Monitor, a non-profit group that monitors language use.

Australia won 10th place on the list, for a ban in August on security staff using the word "mate" in Parliament House.

Prime Minister John Howard and the Labor leader Kim Beazley objected to the order, saying the expression, "mate", was a part of Australian culture.

The ban was withdrawn within 24 hours.

The phrase that topped this year's list was "misguided criminals," one of several terms the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) used so as not to use the word "terrorist" in describing those who carried out train and bus bombings in London that killed 52 people in July, Paul JJ Payack said, the head of Global Language Monitor.

"The BBC attempts to strip away all emotion by using what it considers 'neutral' descriptions when describing those who carried out the bombings in the London Tubes," he said.

Second on the list was "Intrinsic aptitude," a phrase used by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers to explain why women might be under-represented in engineering and science.

The phrase met with "deferred success" and Mr Summers had to fight to keep to his job.

"Thought shower" was third and a French word for riff-raff or scum, "la racaille," was fourth thanks to being used by French Interior Minister Nicholas Sarkozy to describe rioters of Muslim and North African descent in suburbs outside of Paris.

"Out of the mainstream," which Mr Payack said was used to describe the ideology of any political opponent, was fifth and in sixth place was "deferred success" the euphemism for "fail" that Britain's Professional Association of Teachers considered using to bolster students' "self-esteem."

The move met with "deferred success".

Seventh on the list was "womyn" for women, in order to distance the word from men and eighth was using CE (Common Era) for AD (Latin for "Year of Our Lord") so as to be more neutral in dates.

Ninth on the top 10 list was words and phrases that either de-Christianise the Christian holidays or neuter their genders.

For example "God Rest Ye Merry Persons" replaces "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and "Seasons Greetings" replaces "Merry Christmas."

I don't see what's wrong with Common Era.
I was brought up using it.

Christ was born in 5 BC<del>E</del> anywhen.

Whoever wrote this article clearly isn't a good writer, they abused the "deferred success" joke until it's no longer funny.

Now if you want a good example of political correctness gone crazy, my school got rid of "Freshman" and replaced it with "Ninth Grader" while leaving Sophomore, Junior, and Senior in place.
See, "Freshman" is sexist, and was causing all of the 9th grade girls to feel like they didn't belong.
[size=0]No, not really. Don't want to use the eyeroll emoticon though.[/size]

I think that's Hog Wash.