Bushisms make word list — OK

DON’T “misunderestimate” Dubya. Those verbal Bushisms are beginning to “resignate” with the American people. Maybe they’ll even “embetter” the English language.

They may have started out as verbal slip-ups but several of President Bush's mangled phrases found their way this week to a list of the top words of 2002.

There are already 11,000 instances of 'misunderestimate' on the Web. The more people use words, whether jocularly or seriously, the more likely they are to enter the language and last for generations," said Paul JJ Payack, chairman of yourDictionary.com, which compiled the list.

The list of most important words of 2002 was drawn up with help from visitors to the yourDictionary.com Web site and from the site's group of linguists, who monitor the use of the English language around the world.

They include the so-called Bushisms; misunderestimate (to seriously underestimate), embetter (to make emotionally better the opposite of embitter), resignate (as in "they said this issue wouldn't resignate with the people") and foreign-handed (as in "I have a foreign-handed foreign policy").

But the most frequently used word whatever the native language, is still "OK".