New York, October 18: ‘Swine flu’, used to describe the killer viral infection, has been named the most politically incorrect word of 2009 by Global Language Monitor, a group that studies word usage.
“Though hundreds of millions know of the current pandemic as swine flu, various governments and agencies for political motives ranging from protecting pork producers to religious sensitivity have chosen to address the virus by its formal name, influenza A(H1N1),” the GLM said.
‘Flush toilet’, ‘green revolution’, ‘minority’ and ‘saint’ follow ‘swine flu’ in the list that was prepared from a proprietary algorithm by tracking 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 terms ‘politically correct’, ‘oriental’, ‘founding fathers’, ‘black sheep’, and ‘senior citizen’ complete the top 10.
–PTI