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SCOTT SIMON, host: This is the time of year when various authorities release lists of words, phrases and acronyms that have recently joined the English language. BFF, re-tweet, unfriend, and vuvuzela made many current lists. I'm glad for all of them. But there's one phrase I hear almost every day that I don't like at all: I'm just saying.

Its origins are murky. Some people swear they heard it in an early Eddie Murphy routine. Others insist it dates from "Seinfeld"(译名《宋飞传》，美国情景喜剧，1989年7月5日开始在NBC播出) episodes. In any case, the roots of the phrase seem to be sitcom(情景喜剧), not Shakespeare. I'm just saying.

Each week, I get emails and messages that go something like: You are witless(无知的，愚蠢的，发疯的), stupid and immoral, and I wouldn't let you near my tropical fish for fear you'd contaminate them with your depravity. Just saying.

Saying I'm just saying puts a fire escape(太平梯，救火梯，安全出口) onto the end of a sentence. It lets you express a stern, even rude, opinion, but not really. You're just saying. It invites the listener to discount what we've just heard, even as we're reeling from it.

The Urban Dictionary website explains that the phrase makes it possible to deliver a rude comment or burn(伤害性的话语) and have it bounce off simply as an opinion disguised as an objective opinion, and who can argue with you over an opinion that you don't apparently support?

Imagine what the phrase might have done in earlier times. What if Moses(摩西) had told Pharaoh(法老), Let my people go. Just saying. What if Henny Youngman(汉尼杨曼,美国喜剧演员) had said, Take my wife. I'm just saying. What if FDR(富兰克林) tried to rally Americans out of Depression(大萧条) by decreeing(法令，政令): The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. I'm just saying. Or if Churchill(丘吉尔) had tried to rouse Britain in 1940 by declaring: We shall fight them on the beaches, in the air, in the hills, and we shall never surrender. I'm just saying.

What if Romeo had seen Juliet and gushed(滔滔不绝): See how she leans her cheek upon her hand. O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek. Just saying. She might have run off with Tybalt(蒂博尔特，茱丽叶的表哥).

I'm glad that the English language gets enriched each year with new phrases. But just saying seems designed to let us express ourselves sharply but without conviction. It's a way of being colorful without consequences - all lip and no heart. Did we really need a new phrase to help us be more snide(讽刺的，含沙射影的), snarky(尖锐批评的) and insincere(不真诚的，不诚恳的)?

What if Stevie Wonder(史提夫·汪达，美国七八十年代最有影响的流行音乐家之一) had sung: You are the sunshine of my life. Just saying. Some hit(轰动一时作品；流行音乐) that'd be.

(Soundbite of song, "You Are the Sunshine of My Life")

Mr. STEVIE WONDER (Musician): (Singing) I feel like this is the beginning, though I've loved you for a million years. And if I thought our love was ending, I'd find myself drowning in my own tears. You are the sunshine of my life...

SIMON: Just listening to NPR News.

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