The endearment is perhaps surprising considering that Samaranch had led the IOC through its greatest crisis.

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He did clarify that that this office slang was one of endearment, not prejudice.

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Recently, my friend Professor Raj Sisodia released a benchmark book entitled Firms of Endearment.

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The "lucky country" was meant as a dig rather than a term of endearment.

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"I deserve this, " she simply said after winning Best Actress for the 1983 film Terms of Endearment.

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That description hardly applies to the Oracle of Omaha, one of the many terms of endearment he holds.

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To her every address she appended a term of endearment: sweetness, monkey, pie-pie.

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Indeed, the system is very "Tico, " Costa Ricans' term of endearment for themselves.

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The problem with terms of address and endearment is that changes in language have not quite caught up with society, says Brookes.

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They all gather around it to watch it die as it mumbles something incoherent, much in the way the prawns (another term of endearment) communicate in District 9.

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Here, the star of An Officer and a Gentleman, Shadowlands and Terms of Endearment, tells BBC News Online it was not a 'celebrity' trip - but a chance to see people being helped to rebuild their lives.

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