let's see what the OED shows..

2. In attributive use (hyphened): Called or designated by this name or term, but not properly entitled to it or correctly described by it. Also loosely or catachr. as a term of abuse.
More recently, and now quite commonly (esp. in technical contexts), used merely to call attention to the description, without implication of incorrectness, as in (b). Cf. Du. zoogenaamd, -genoemd, -gezeid, G. sogenannt.

(a) 1837 CARLYLE Fr. Rev. II. I. ii, The Right Side..persists..in considering..all these so-called Decrees as mere temporary whims. 1862 MILLER Elem. Chem., Org. (ed. 2) i. §2. 39 The so-called elementary bodies being really compounds of at least two atoms of the true element. 1884 PENNINGTON Wiclif vi. 193 Their so-called poverty is nothing else but a diabolical lie. 1888 O. WILDE in Woman's World I. 134/2 ‘This so-called nineteenth century’{em}as an impassioned young orator once termed it, after a contemptuous diatribe against the evils of modern civilisation. 1960 C. S. LEWIS Studies in Words ix. 226 Rose Macaulay noticed a tendency to prefix ‘so called’ to almost any adjective when it was used of those the speaker hated; the final absurdity being reached when people referred to the Germans as ‘these so-called Germans’. 1980 W. SAFIRE in N.Y. Times Mag. 13 Jan. 6/1 Examples of sneer words are ‘self-proclaimed’, ‘would-be’, ‘purported’ and that Soviet favorite, ‘so-called’.
(b) 1886 C. E. PASCOE Lond. of To-day xl. (ed. 3) 341 The leading so-called linendrapers of the metropolis. a1961 in WEBSTER, s.v., His heavy working schedule did not keep the student out of so-called campus politics. 1962 R. CARSON Silent Spring viii. 86 The so-called Dutch elm disease entered the United States from Europe about 1930. 1966 G. GREENE Comedians I. ii. 46 New buildings..built for an international exhibition in so-called modern style. 1968 Physics Bull. Nov. 373/1 The socalled Schrödinger representation. 1977 C. SAGAN Dragons of Eden ii. 41 Many spinal-cord neurons seem to have about 10,000 synapses, and the so-called Purkinje cells of the cerebellum may have still more. 1979 P. NIHALANI et al. Indian & Brit. English I. 164 A number of so-called transformational grammarians are to attend the teachers' conference at Krishnapur next week.

as you can see, using it 'merely to call attention' has been going on for a while.

edit: it should be noted that in predicative use, so called by grammarians, it is properly wtihout hyphen and means 'called or designated by that name.'

well, it's easy to see how that became so-called "smeared".

-joe (so called) friday

Last edited by tsuwm; 12/05/07 04:40 PM.