Homer’s grunt enjoys global clout, says survey

“D’OH!” – the grunt of frustration used by Homer Simpson – is the phrase from The Simpsons which has had the most impact on the English language, an international survey of translators showed yesterday.

Other expressions made famous by the US animated series since its launch two decades ago include “craptacular,” “eat my shorts” and the dismissive “Meh,” according to the survey of 320 linguists.

“Cheese-eating surrender monkeys” – which gained currency as a description of the French by US critics during the 2003 invasion of Iraq – is also among phrases which have entered the global lexicon via the small screen.

The survey, which considered which words or phrases from the The Simpsons have had an impact on the English language, was based on answers from translators working around the world for a London-based translation agency.

“Homer Simpson must be the most influential wordsmith since Shakespeare,” said Jurga Zilinskiene, head of Today Translations, which carried out the survey.