Vuvuzela voted 'word of the Cup'

The vuvuzela - love it or hate it, it's hard to ignore it.

Now the term for the unique African horn has been voted the "word of the World Cup", in a global poll of language experts in over 60 countries.

The linguists voted it the single word "that has made the biggest impact on the 2010 World Cup, and that it will be best remembered for".

Vuvuzela, the long, coloured plastic horn or trumpet blown loudly by World Cup spectators, won a landslide victory in a survey of linguists conducted by Today Translations, a London-based translation company with a network of 2,600 linguists in over 60 countries.

It far out-pointed Waka (as in "Waka Waka/ This Time for Africa", the official World Cup song, sung by Shakira), which came in second place, itself well ahead of the three words in joint third place:

• Jabulani (the official match ball of the World Cup)

• Zakumi (the official World Cup mascot), and

• bafana (as in "bafana bafana/ the boys the boys", the nickname of the South African national team).

Over 320 linguists from over 60 countries voted in the poll.