Newspaper headline writers default to noting that something was “lost in translation” to characterize a language faux pas, malaprop, or other linguistic or cultural tragedy. Public speakers and presenters favor using this pop culture reference.

We are not guiltless. In December 2003 we thought we were pretty clever titling a report “How to Avoid Getting Lost in Translation.” We joked that search engines would list our report before getting to Scarlett Johansson and Bill Murray. The film premiered in the States in September 2003 and in the U.K. a few months later. Sure enough we did get some hits from aficionados searching for the film and instead learning from our report that 87% of companies outsource their language services.

Eighteen months later Google informed us that the quoted string “lost in translation” generated about 1,500,000 hits. We can believe this. Our daily alerts for language-related topics regularly return a few items where a newspaper or speech used the expression. Of course “lost in translation” is a pretty old set expression. We remember using it regularly in Latin IV to describe shortcomings in our sight-reading translations of Cicero and Virgil.

In our view, “lost in translation” has already jumped the shark. While it remains an evocative expression, media overuse has made it a term to be avoided.