Catchprhase named word of the year

Catherine Tate's ‘bovvered’ catchphrase has been named the word of the year by the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The word might now make it into the dictionary after expert Susie Dent, from Channel 4’s Countdown, included it in The Language Report about emerging vocabulary.

She said the deciding factor would be whether the word found its own life away from being a catchphase.

Usage of the word is said to have taken off following Tate’s appearance at the Royal Variety Performance in November 2005, when her surly teenager character Lauren asked the Queen: ‘Is one bothered?’

A spokesman for the OED said: ‘”Am I bovvered?” had already come to be seen as the perfect expression of a generation of teenagers and their speaking style.

‘Now in 2006 “bovvered” has taken over from “whatever” as the signature phrase of teenagers, and to challenge the Little Britain catchphrase “yeah-but-no-but”' as the embodiment of couldn't-care-less adolescence.’

Previous words of the year include sudoku in 2005, chav in 2004, and 'to sex something up' from 2003.

Dent said: ‘Bovvered however neatly reflects our culture and its linguistic influences. It is also arguably an extension of “chav” which caused something of a stir when it was named word of the year in 2004.

‘Both words illustrate the power of language to divide opinion and excite debate by evoking a whole social milieu.

‘The key difference is in their register - while one is a derogatory label, the other is a TV comic's catchphrase which has caught the public imagination and packs its punch differently, as a summary of a mindset recognisable to most of us.’

Other new words highlighted in the book include WAGs (wives and girlfriends), 'waparazzi' (ordinary people snapping celebrities on their mobile phones), ‘offlish' (business jargon) and the poker term ‘Anna Kournikova’ for an ace and a king – so-called because it looks a good hand but in fact rarely wins anything.

Published: 12 Oct 2006