The competition was fierce, but in the end the German Language Association (VDS) managed to sort through heaps of annoying expressions borrowed from English and agree on the most irritating of all: "X-mas."

Roland Duhamel, a member of the association's executive board, said on Wednesday that "X-mas" had won the VDS' annual "most uncalled-for word" competition. The use of the term "Xmas" stands in "stark contradiction," he said, to everything Germans normally associate with Christmas -- including "comfort, tradition, romance, and Christianity."

The German word for Christmas is "Weihnachten," but "X-mas" is used more and more in German advertising. Duhamel said the term's true horror goes beyond that of ordinary anglicisms. Even within English, he said, the substitution of X for Christ is an especially "vulgar abbreviation."

Duhamel is professor of German Literature at the University of Antwerp in Belgium. He has written several books and articles on the subject of nihilism.

X-mas has its share of foes in the English-speaking world as well, although the roots of "X-mas" are thoroughly Christian. X stands for the Greek letter "Chi," a long-time shorthand for "Christ." According to Webster's Dictionary, the first printed use of X-mas dates back at least as far as 1551.

In this year's competition, "X-mas" edged out a number of strong rivals. In second place came the term "flyer," which the association noted could easily be replaced by the German equivalent "Flugblatt." In third place came the pervasive business term "Human Resources," which the association said could be translated as "menschliche Rohstoffe," though it's difficult to imagine that coinage catching on. It literally means "human raw materials."

'Ugly and Unnecessary'

The German Language Association is a grassroots organization with over 30,000 members, making it by its own calculations the largest language advocacy group in the world. Founded in 1997 by a German mathematician, the association has members in over 95 countries. Its goal is to preserve "German as an independent language of science and culture," according to its mission statement, and to "defend it from being crowded out by English."

The group also publishes an annual "Anglicism Index" with over 7,000 English expressions that have creeped into the German language. Of these, the group reckons that 5,600 could be easily replaced with German equivalents.