Brexit named word of the year, ahead of Trumpism and hygge
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Version 0 of 1. “Brexit” has emerged ahead of “Trumpism” and “hygge” to be named the word of the year by Collins after seeing an “unprecedented surge” in use. The dictionary publisher said that Brexit saw its first recorded usage in 2013, but has since increased in use by more than 3,400% this year as the referendum approached in June, and as the ramifications have played out since. Such an increase, said Collins, is “unheard of” since it began monitoring word usage. “‘Brexit’ is arguably politics’s most important contribution to the English language in over 40 years, since the Watergate scandal gave commentators and comedians the suffix ‘-gate’ to make any incident or scandal infinitely more compelling,” said Helen Newstead, Collins’s head of language content. According to Newstead, Brexit is “proving even more useful and adaptable” than Watergate. As well as its obvious definition as “the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union”, and its spawning of words including “bremain” and “bremorse”, the term has also inspired “a lot of wordplay”, said Collins. She pointed to “BrexPitt” or “Bradxit”, referring to the end of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s marriage, “Mexit”, for the footballer Lionel Messi’s retirement, and “Bakexit”, about the BBC’s loss of The Great British Bake Off. It was added to the current print edition of Collins Dictionary earlier this year. Other contenders for Collins’s word of the year included Trumpism. “Trump is not the first politician to have had his name co-opted by language: ‘Thatcherism’ and ‘Reaganomics’, for example,” said Newstead. “However, the longevity of ‘Trumpism’ as a word may depend on his success in the forthcoming election.” Collins’ 10-strong list of final contenders for the top spot, which will appear in Collinsdictionary.com, also included “snowflake generation”, which it defines as “the young adults of the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generations”, and the Danish concept of “hygge”, or “creating cosy and convivial atmospheres that promote wellbeing”. The phrase “throw shade”, which Collins said was made popular in gay communities in late 1980s America, and which it defines as “to make a public show of contempt for someone or something, often in a subtle or non-verbal manner”, also made Collins’s list, as did “sharenting” (“the habitual use of social media to share news, images, etc of one’s children”). “Most of this year’s words are used by or relate to the generation born towards the end of the last century. They are the drivers of ‘dude food’, quickest to ‘throw shade’ or ‘mic drop’. They may be referred to by some as the ‘snowflake generation’, but they are the most likely to rail against ‘Brexit’ and ‘Trumpism’. Their contribution to the constant evolution of the English language should not be overlooked,” said Newstead. Collins’s words of the year, with full definitions Brexit (ˈbrɛɡzɪt) noun: the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union dude food (ˈduːd ˌfuːd) noun: junk food such as hot dogs, burgers, etc considered particularly appealing to men hygge (ˈhyɡə) noun: a concept, originating in Denmark, of creating cosy and convivial atmospheres that promote wellbeing JOMO (ˈdʒəʊməʊ) noun acronym: joy of missing out: pleasure gained from enjoying one’s current activities without worrying that other people are having more fun mic drop (ˈmaɪk ˌdrɒp) noun: a theatrical gesture in which a person drops (or imitates the action of dropping) a hand-held microphone to the ground as the finale to a speech or performance sharenting (ˈʃɛərəntɪŋ) noun: the habitual use of social media to share news, images, etc of one’s children snowflake generation (ˈsnəʊfleɪk dʒɛnəˌreɪʃən) noun: the young adults of the 2010s, viewed as being less resilient and more prone to taking offence than previous generations throw shade (ˌθrəʊ ˈʃeɪd) verb: to make a public show of contempt for someone or something, often in a subtle or non-verbal manner Trumpism (ˈtrʌmpɪzəm) noun: (1) the policies advocated by the US politician Donald Trump, especially those involving a rejection of the current political establishment and the vigorous pursuit of US national interests (2) a controversial or outrageous statement attributed to Donald Trump uberization (ˌuːbəraɪˈzeɪʃən) noun: the adoption of a business model in which services are offered on demand through direct contact between a customer and supplier, usually via mobile technology |