The winner of the 15th annual Word of the Year contest was definitely not too close to call, an MSU linguistics professor said.

The American Dialect Society voted "red state, blue state, purple state" as the most prominent phrase in the country's vocabulary in 2004.

"You think back on the year, and what was the most engaging, nauseating, delightful for some, sickening for others experience? The election," said Dennis Preston, an MSU professor and member of the group.

"And what sums the election up better than this?"

The phrase is used to describe American states by the way they vote. Red states favor republicans, blue states favor democrats and purple are undecided.

The terms are definitely not new, Preston said.

Democrats of the 1940s and 1950s pushed to be called the "blue party" to dissociate themselves from the color red, which was symbolic of communism.

The phrase beat out four other nominees, including flip-flopper - a politician who changes political stances.