When some cattle started becoming very ill in Britain a couple of decades ago, the media correctly reported that the animals had "bovine spongiform encephalopathy." But the phrase didn't exactly stampede into mainstream English. As The Economist noted in 1987, the disease "twists the tongues of vets and wrecks the brains of cows."

A reporter at the Sunday Telegraph, David Brown, decided to come up with another label. The animals wandered about struggling to stay up, he said, and suddenly went from being calm to raging beasts. In some ways, it appeared madness had set in.

Brown coined the term "mad cow disease" in 1988. The expression "took off very slowly," he told New York Times columnist William Safire a few years ago, but then "just cranked itself up." It's now very much part of our language.

"Mad cow disease" is far easier to say than the correct scientific name. It also conveys a lot more than mere initials: "Your herd has BSE? Well, that's really TB (Too Bad)."

But the label "mad cow" does have its critics who argue that the brain-wasting condition does not actually cause madness. On the other hand, when dogs or other animals get rabies we often call them mad, not "so-called" mad, so our criteria for judging colloquialisms can lack consistency. In fact, it's worth noting that the word "rabies" comes from the Latin term for "rave" (showing signs of madness), and experts warn that early symptoms of this virus in cattle look a lot like BSE.

BSE AND THE CBC

When news broke in May about a single case of BSE in Alberta, a producer forwarded a copy of an old memo to the corporation's journalists across the country. The advice, from CBC Radio's language guide, contained a useful reminder about our preferred pronunciation: Boh'-vine Spun'-jih-form en-Sef'-ah-Law'-path-ee. (The British usually say en-Kef' not en-Sef'.)

But the entry also recommended we avoid the term "mad cow disease" because it's not scientific, and suggested that if we really wanted to toss it into news stories we should always tack on the qualifying adjective "so-called." It wasn't long before a few writers and editors began inquiring about whether we should also say "so-called chicken pox" (which is actually varicella, and has nothing to do with barnyard animals), or "so-called whooping cough" (which is technically known as pertussis), or "so-called West Nile virus" (which is obviously not limited to that part of the world).

Within a few days, the language guide's entry – written almost 10 years earlier – was updated to reflect how widely known and accepted Brown's term has become. CBC journalists are still encouraged to refer to "BSE" at least once high up in their stories. But they're also welcome to use "mad cow disease," and they don't need to add "so-called."

SO-CALLED MIDDLE EAST

As CBC News said so long to "so-called" in stories about BSE, concern was raised about how frequently the term has crept into the media's coverage of many other matters – especially the Middle East.

Journalists from various print and broadcast outlets have referred not only to the "so-called 'road map' to peace" formally presented to the Israelis and Palestinians this year, but also to the "so-called quartet" that drafted it – the U.S., Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. What is the latter phrase supposed to mean? To some, the implication might be that it should actually be a duet, not a quartet, since the first two members of the group are also part of the UN itself. Or perhaps a solo would make more sense, if the EU is assumed to fall within the larger body too.

We're bombarded with the adjective so-called: the "so-called Green Line," the "so-called occupied territories," the "so-called Christian Zionists," the "so-called Arab-Israelis" and countless other expressions that may leave some doubting whether the "so-called peace process" has any chance of success.

From a North American's perspective, even geographic terms like "Middle East" could be classified as "so-called." Western Europe is fairly far east to us, and to get to the Far East – well, you may actually be better off flying west.

SO-CALLED CONFUSION

The primary problem with "so-called" is that it has contradictory meanings – "commonly called" versus "improperly called" – and it's not always clear what the speaker or writer intends.

For well over a century, "so-called" has suggested something or someone with a designation that is either inappropriate (so-called safety feature) or applied with scorn (so-called friends). In recent years, however, it's also become a neutral way of pointing out a relatively new or unfamiliar name (so-called generation X or so-called Stockholm syndrome), which loses this branding as it becomes better known. The term is also used to draw attention to a specific description (so-called dirty energy or so-called champagne socialists).

Some manuals, including Eric Partridge's Usage and Abusage and the Guide to Canadian English Usage, recommend avoiding the last two approaches, arguing that "so-called" always implies irony or skepticism. But it may be a bit hard for everyone to accept this so-called reasoning, especially since as a predicative (falling after the noun) the words "so called" (without a hyphen) have been used to mean "designated by that name" since the 1650s. The Oxford English Dictionary, for instance, includes this example from more than 300 years ago: "Rubrick, a name given to a book of the civil law, so called because the heads of the chapters were written in red letters."

Many authorities don't seem troubled by the wider use of so-called as an attributive adjective (before the noun), and limit their comments to whether the term should be followed by quotation marks. The New York Times, for instance, rules that inverted commas are redundant. The paper's 1999 style manual says it should be so-called poison pill defence, not so-called "poison pill defence." (It uses the American spelling "defense," of course.) But the New Revised Fowler's (1998) is more flexible: "Strictly speaking, the quotation marks are not needed, but their use or omission is just a matter of taste."

Over at the Washington Post, one of the chief copy editors, Bill Walsh, favours using quotation marks for unfamiliar terms, but dropping "so-called" unless the writer implies the label is improper. So the example cited by the Times would become the company says it may have to fight the unwanted takeover by resorting to the "poison pill defence."

For a broadcaster, however, this solution presents an obvious problem. TV reporters who wanted to use quotation marks would have to make funny curling signals with their fingers as they spoke on camera. And radio journalists would be out of luck. In these cases, words of some sort are required to alert our ears to special punctuation, although "so-called" may not always be the best choice.

SO-CALLED CONCLUSION

When "mad cow disease" was first applied to BSE 15 years ago, an explanation made sense. The phrase "also known as" worked nicely, along with various synonyms, including "so-called." But now that mad cow disease seems to be as familiar as the term German measles, the extra words "so-called" stand out like an unwanted rash.

If a band is said to play "so-called music," it's a pretty good bet the critic is not a fan. And when Carl Sagan mentions "so-called Purkinje cells of the cerebellum," it's not a shock to find out that he simply mean bits of our brain named after a professor of physiology who discovered them in 1837. The credit given to Jan Evangelista Purkinje long ago is not being challenged.

But if someone refers to the "so-called 'road map to peace' in the Middle East," what is the message? Is "so-called" merely shorthand for "what people have dubbed" the "road map" to peace? Or does it imply that the plan may not bring about "peace" at all, and could, as some critics argue, actually lead the region down a path toward more violence? Since the answer is not clear, the wording is too muddy.

When used sparingly, the expression "so-called" enriches English. It can underscore a new name (the so-called greenhouse effect), disappearing as the novelty fades, and it can pack a derisive dismissal into a few syllables (his so-called doctor never graduated from high school). But the phrase becomes grating and meaningless if it appears too often. (The so-called yuppies slurped their so-called orange mocha frappuccinos while grousing about civilization's so-called progress.)

For journalists, the real danger with "so-called" is telegraphing the wrong signal. As the 1998 Globe and Mail Style Book warns: "Avoid this expression if there is any chance that it will convey the impression that the following definition is not to be believed." CBC News offers staff similar advice. Following it requires judicious writing and careful editing. Maintaining a healthy distrust of so-called language mavens, of course, never hurts.