William Safire, a lion among conservative columnists in the United States and an expert linguist with a taste for wordplay, died Sunday from cancer. He was 79.

An obituary in the New York Times, where Safire spent more than 30 years writing commentaries and his "On Language" column, said he died from pancreatic cancer at a hospice in Rockville, Md.

"Not only was he brilliant in language and assessing the nuances of politics, he was a kind and funny boss who gave lots of credit to others," said Safire's assistant, Rosemary Shields.New York Times columnist William Safire, pictured in Washington, D.C., in 1996, wrote more than 3,000 essays for the paper during a 32-year period. (Mark Wilson/File/AP)

A college dropout, Safire became known as a hawk among the left-leaning doves at the New York Times. He penned more than 3,000 columns, defending his type of politics, which he branded as "libertarian conservative."

In his language column, published in The New York Times Magazine, the acerbic writer delighted in the origins of phrases such as "under the bus" and "straw man."

Born Dec. 17, 1929, in New York City, William Safire would go from Bronx High School to Syracuse University, quitting during his second year.

From 1949 to 1951, he worked with Tex McCrary, a columnist and a radio and TV host. After that job, he became a correspondent for WNBC-TV in Europe and the Middle East. A year later, he joined the army and became a reporter with the armed forces.

Worked in Nixon's White House

Safire started in public relations after leaving the army in 1954 and worked with Nixon on his failed 1960 presidential run against John F. Kennedy.

Safire also worked in Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's 1964 bid for the White House. Four years later, he would find himself on the inside — as special assistant to Nixon, joining his speech-writing team.

Safire is noted for creating fantastical phrases such as "nattering nabobs" and "hysterical hypochondriacs" for Nixon's vice-president, Spiro Agnew.

Hired by the Times in 1973, he ventured into column writing and, along with George Will and William F. Buckley Jr., ushered in a new kind of conservatism. He wrote a twice weekly essay for the Times from 1973 to 2005.

Safire also wrote four novels, including the bestseller Full Disclosure in 1997 and Before the Fall, a memoir about his White House years.

For many years, he also served as chair of the Dana Foundation, an organization supporting brain science and arts education.

In 1978, he captured a Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his series examining what he saw as shady financial affairs of President Jimmy Carter's budget director, Bert Lance. Lance resigned and was acquitted at a trial. Safire served on the Pulitzer board from 1995 to 2004.

Supported war in Iraq

He was a supporter of the war in Iraq but condemned the Patriot Act's attack on civil liberties. Then-president George W. Bush awarded Safire the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.

In his spirited defence of Israel, civil liberties and conservative policies, Safire made many enemies and friends, but he also had respect.

"Few insiders doubt that William Safire is the most influential and respected pundit alive," Eric Albertman wrote in his 1999 book, Sound and Fury: The Making of the Punditocracy.

Safire's last Op-Ed column was "Never Retire" in 2005.

With files from The Associated Press