In January 2000, MSNBC's Chris Matthews asked if GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush was a serious enough person to be trusted with the Oval Office.

"And you have to ask about George W. Bush, is the package full? And there have been questions raised about his gravitas, his weight, his IQ. Have you been ever suspicious that he may not have the weight to be president?" the cable news anchor asked then-New York Gov. George Pataki.

In July, then-Wall Street Journal reporter Al Hunt said Bush benefited greatly from nominating Dick Cheney as his running mate and explained that the longtime Wyoming congressman made up for the GOP nominee's "lack of gravitas."

In August, the New York Times reported that many voters were "troubled by Bush's lack of gravitas."

And on it went for the remainder of the first presidential race of the new millennium, as the "so-called gravitas gap" remained one of the most-discussed topics of the election cycle.

The word "gravitas" also became something of a running joke, with newsrooms deploying the term with such regularity that political commentator Jeff Greenfield referred to it at the time as the "phrase of the moment."

Years later, conservative author David Limbaugh recalled the press' curious "gravitas" addiction and noted it was difficult "to narrow a Nexis search to find fewer than 1,000 entries on it."

It was not a one-time event.

It's fairly common for newsrooms to latch onto catchwords and phrases, media critic Steve Buttry told the Washington Examiner.

"Buzzwords have always been a part of the public conversation. Every cliche started as something clever," he said.

All it takes is for one person to come up with a somewhat clever play on words. From there, it's like an avalanche, as newsrooms everywhere adopt the term, sometimes without anyone consciously noticing that they're doing it.

"Some buzzwords kind of come about in explanation of things in the news," he said, referring to examples such as "blogosphere."

When reporters and pundits start using the same buzzwords, like they did in 2000 with "gravitas," it's not a conspiracy, he added.

It's simpler than that.

"There's some groupthink and laziness," Buttry said. "You don't need to be in a smoke-filled room to decide to start using it. It's as simple as, 'Hey, that's good.'

"There's kind of a sweet spot between where a clever term becomes a cliche and where it's helpful for a shorthand quick recognition of something," he added.

As members of the media tend to watch and read one another, it's not surprising, then, that a clever turn of phrase at one newsroom would soon appear at others.

"The media very much live in a bubble where buzzwords and phrases take off within the circle and get used up, chewed up and spit out," a former cable news producer told the Examiner.

Since the 2000 race between Bush and Al Gore, election coverage has relied even more on buzzwords, as the dawn of 24-hour cable news and the pressure to fill airtime with meaningful commentary has encouraged reporters and pundits to draw from an arsenal of tired but seemingly intelligent-sounding phrases and terms.

"I always used to say that cable news punditry is where these phrases find their heyday, because it gives on-air commentators something to say without saying anything at all. For instance, especially in 2012, the word 'optics' was a big deal," the producer told the Examiner.

"And there were full segments discussing the 'optics' of a Romney or Obama move. It was a tiresome way of asking a really simple question: Does this look good right now? Will this minor thing impact the race in the long run?" the producer added.

Like Buttry, he said the buzzword phenomenon is most likely a mixture of a lack imagination and a herd mentality.

"I think it comes from groupthink, and maybe the self-congratulatory nature of speaking in a coded language that signals, 'I'm smarter than you,'" the producer said. "It's like how athletes on a field all talk to each other in seemingly bizarre language. I think journalists and media types like to signal to each other that they're 'in' on the conversation.

"But, overall, I'd say, it's just a quirky side issue," he added. "The people who enjoy speaking in that coded language are few and far between, and I'd imagine most outsiders don't really realize we speak it. They just think, 'Oh, my, how important!'"

There are classic newsroom catchphrases, including "breaking news," "key race alert" and "just in," which are used frequently to spice up stories and give an air of urgency.

These classics have been used so often, in fact, that the Washington Post's Dave Weigel said in 2012 that cable news alert had been "watered down into pointlessness."

Then there are the suffixes that newsrooms still find clever, including "-gate" and "-mentum," the former being a reference to the Watergate scandal and the latter being a reference to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's supposed "momentum" in the 2012 presidential race.

Election years normally take the buzzword game a step further, as ramped up news coverage tends to bring about the introduction of entirely new catchphrases and plays on words.

The 2016 presidential race is no exception.

"The big one right now is mocking Donald Trump by saying 'huge,' but spelling it 'yuge,'" Buttry told the Examiner. "It was probably pretty clever the first three or four times that somebody did it, but now it has gotten a little old."

He has a point.

The International Business Times published a story this year titled, "Donald Trump's Finance Chair Is A Bank Exec Who Made 'Yuge' Profits From The Financial Crisis."

"'The Daily Show': Trump Is a Yuge Hypocrite on Guns" the Daily Beast said in a separate headline.

Rolling Stone got in on the action with a report titled, "John McCain Has a Yuge Donald Trump Problem."

"Donald Trump's former 'starter mansion' just had a 'yuge' drop in its asking price," the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.

And these are examples from just May.

The 2016 election and Donald Trump's meteoric political ascent has spurred hours of nonstop media commentary, which, in turn, have produced a mountain of buzzwords and coded jargon.

Here are some of the most popular from throughout the 2016 election:

1. Business titles

Trump is running as the "outsider" candidate. He has never held public office, and he is using that to his advantage.

However, because reporters can't address him as a senator, congressman or any other official title, they've resorted to referring to him with an assortment of business-related honorifics.

Depending on who is doing the talking, Trump is a "mogul," "casino tycoon," "billionaire," "billionaire businessman" and/or a "real estate mogul."

These terms have been used repeatedly in news reports since the billionaire casino real estate mogul launched his candidacy in June 2015.

2. Town hall

In politics, "town hall" often refers to an informal meeting between a candidate and his constituents, where the former is asked a series of questions by the latter.

In 2016, however, "town hall" has been co-opted so that it now refers to a carefully produced television interview filmed before a live audience.

CNN, MSNBC and Fox News have held multiple interviews with candidates that they have billed as "town hall" events. Though questions have been asked at some of these highly orchestrated affairs, they are anything but informal.

Gone is the quaint notion of a lawmaker meeting for a personal Q&A with his voters. Instead, a "town hall" can now refer to an event that is comprised mostly of bright lights, cameras, production crews, makeup assistants and maybe some planted questions.

3. Brokered

The idea that Trump may be challenged at the GOP convention had been one of the most talked-about issues of the election.

As such, the term "brokered" came up a lot in regards to the convention. A lot.

"Dear Trump Haters, a Brokered Convention Won't Happen," wrote Forbes.

Newsweek wrote, "I Was So Looking Forward to a Brokered GOP Convention."

"A brokered convention? A third-party candidate? Welcome to the media's nirvana," reads a Washington Post headline.

Time magazine, meanwhile, published a story titled, "This Graphic Shows What Happened at the Last Real Brokered Convention."

And there's a lot more where that came from, as the term "brokered convention" was used by the press to mean either its original meaning or a "contested convention" or an "open convention."

4. Endorse vs. support

Trump's candidacy has proven a sticky situation for many GOP lawmakers. Though Republicans want to remain loyal to their party, many of them don't want to be associated with Trump's particular brand of rhetoric.

So there have been a lot of tepid statements issuing support for "the party's nominee," but many of these same statements fall short of an actual endorsement.

Further confusing the issue is the fact that the press has been using "endorse" and "support" synonymously.

It has gotten to the point where campaign aides are issuing statements clarifying whether their employers have indeed endorsed Trump or whether they're merely supporting the party's nominee.

"We're not playing word games, feel free to call it an endorsement," Rep. Paul Ryan's, R-Wis., communications adviser, Brendan Buck, said after the House speaker announced he would vote for the party's nominee.

"Folks — We're not playing word games, feel free to call it an endorsement," said Ryan's press secretary, AshLee Strong.

5. Bernie Bros

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., inspired a fierce loyalty in his followers. Many of the senator's supporters also appeared to be millennial-aged males, according to members of the press.

And thus was born the title "Bernie Bros," a none-too-flattering label used by media to refer to Sanders' eager supporters.

"The Bernie Bros are out in full force harassing female reporters," a Washington Post headline read in June.

Roll Call went with a story titled, "Why Bernie Bros Will Come To Hillary."

In May, Time magazine published an op-ed titled, "I Felt the Bern But the Bros Are Extinguishing the Flames."

"Why Bernie's Bros Might Go for Trump," theorized a Politico magazine article.

And so on and so on. Though the term started out originally as a designation for a specific sect of Sanders' supporters, it morphed into a phrase meaning "anyone who enthusiastically supports Bernie Sanders."

6. Kids table

The "kids table" normally refers to a group of children set apart from the main group of adults in a dining situation, but it was repurposed in the 2016 election to refer to the GOP candidates with the lowest polling numbers.

Like most buzzwords, referring to the opening GOP debates in the election began with someone using the term "kids table" as a joke. It soon became a common buzzword to describe the GOP's two-tier debate system.

From an MSNBC headline in November 2015: "Electability versus purity in GOP kids table debate."

"Carly Fiorina Takes Shots at Trump, Clinton From the Kids' Table," read a headline in the Wrap.

ThinkProgress followed with, "Fox News May Bump Candidates To The 'Kids' Table' For The Next Debate."

"Rand Paul Blasts FBN Decision Sending Him To Kids Table For Thursday GOP Debate," said Deadline.

7. Pivot

It's no longer adjusting your language or changing your mind: When you're a presidential candidate, a change in tone or policy is a "pivot."

"Look Out for the Trump Pivot!" read a New York Magazine headline in March.

A Washington Post op-ed said in May, "Republicans hope for a Trump 'pivot.' Good luck with that."

Business Insider went with a double "pivot" headline in May reading, "Donald Trump has pivoted — it's just not the pivot you were looking for."

"Trump Can't Pivot," said Slate's Jamelle Bouie.

Politico magazine went with, "Insiders: Trump stumbled in general election pivot."

Bonus: These terms are leftovers from the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections, but they're still getting a lot of mileage.

8. "Double down"

From a June Fox News Insider story: "Krauthammer: Trump's Double-Down on 'Mexican' Judge Remarks Is 'Revealing.'

From Quartz: "Watch Donald Trump simultaneously walk back and double down on his racist comments."

From a March ABC News headline: "Donald Trump Doubles Down on 'Islam Hates Us' Comments."

9. "Game changer"/"Game change"

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that Trump's criticism of the judge hearing the Trump University fraud case is not a "game changer."

"But I don't think that's a game changer in the sense that, overall, he is so much better than Hillary Clinton that any conservative, any Republican, has to be for Donald Trump. It's that straightforward," he said in an interview with the Fox Business Network.

A USA Today headline in April read, "Game changer? Bobby Knight to campaign with Trump in Indiana."

RealClearPolitics published an op-ed in June titled, "Middle-Class Pain; 'Never-Trump' Struggles; Spoiler or Game-Changer? Fallen Soldier."

These are just a few examples of the buzzwords currently being thrown around newsrooms.

And there are still 92 days left in the election.