I was familiar with "short list", meaning you've made the last cut before the final winner is chosen. Says AHD:
short-list, verb: To include (a candidate for a job, for example) on a shortlist.
shortlist, noun: A list of preferable items or candidates that have been selected for final consideration, as in making an award or filling a position.

But here's a new one on me, though I suppose it was inevitable:

[Re Claire Messud:] Her most recent novel, The Emperor's Children has been long-listed for the 2006 Man Booker Prize.
– Chicago Tribune, Sept. 15, 2007, §5 p.16

Yes, I've seen it quite often.

quote:

Her most recent novel, The Emperor's Children has been long-listed for the 2006 Man Booker Prize.
– Chicago Tribune, Sept. 15, 2007, §5 p.16

Some confusion over tenses, here, surely? Did they mean, perhaps, "... was long-listed ..."?

shu: As I felt this thread was being neglected, I agree with arnie

In another thread we've been talking about a word from "Atonement." When I went to see how many Google hits "longlist" has, I found that "Atonement" leads the BAFTA longlist.

"Longlisted" got 14,000 Google hits, while "shortlisted" got 307,000. I wonder if "longlist" is more a British term? By the way, what exactly does it mean?

quote:

what exactly does it mean?

When the judges of a particular award or whatever first meet they will draw up a longlist of possibly deserving candidates. They will then whittle down the choices to the shortlist, from which the eventual winner is chosen.

To use a current analogy, I suppose you could say that those entered for your US presidential primaries constitute a longlist, from which one or two from each party will be chosen to go onto the shortlist for eventually standing for election.

Makes sense, arnie. I should have figured that out!

I was at a meeting in Washington DC today, and they must have mentioned "low-hanging fruit" 10 times. They'd say, "Let's go for the low-hanging fruit," when referring to designing healthcare studies. This thread made me wonder if there is "high-haning fruit." Sure enough, at least according to Google.