I have to admit, I'm still basking in the glow of last month's American Dialect Society meeting, when my two picks for 2009's Most Euphemistic — hiking the Appalachian trail and sea kittens — each took home an award. Hiking killed it in the euph category, while the sea kittens swam over to "Most Unnecessary" and took the prize. Booyah, and may I add, for the benefit of older readers, huzzah!

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Mark Peters is a language columnist, lexicographer, and collector of fanciful words. His book Yada, Yada, Doh! chronicles words and phrases that made the leap from television to everyday speech. He contributes to Verbatim, Good, and OUPblog, and he also blogs regularly at Wordlustitude, The Rosa Parks of Blogs, and The Pancake Proverbs. You can also follow Mark on Twitter. Click here to read more articles by Mark Peters.