NEW YORK, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- Tom Cruise's antics on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" spawned the term, "jump the couch," which has been named 2005 Slang of the Year.
The term means "to exhibit strange or frenetic behavior," editors of the Dictionary of American Slang said in announcing their choice Friday.
Shortly after Cruise wildly professed his love for his pregnant fiancee Katie Holmes by jumping on Winfrey's couch, the term "jump the couch" popped up in The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and all over the Internet, lexicographers at Oxford University Press said in a news release.
"Jump the couch" is a spinoff of "jump the shark," a slang term sparked by an episode of "Happy Days" in which Fonzie jumped a shark on water skies and the popular series went downhill from there.
"Jump the couch" beat out other popular 2005 slang terms such as "Floodweiser," "spokesweasel," "girlfriend experience or GFE" and "facebook."
