Photo credits: veritcalresponse.com

Oxford Dictionaries have named ‘post-truth’ as their 2016 word of the year, and what a great word it is. Don’t get me wrong, it is terribly depressing that we are in a post-truth world, but in terms of linguistic selection a valiant choice has been made. ‘Post-factual’ sounds a bit more fancy to be honest, but I imagine that hasn’t achieved enough currency yet. It is certainly more commendable than last year’s abomination of      ‘ 😂 ‘.

Defined as an adjective “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”, this neologism of ‘lie’ or ‘mislead’ can be attributed to the politically charged events of 2016. Whether it be the £350 million battle bus slogan, the threat of an emergency budget or even ‘Make America Great Again’ – implying that it isn’t at present – slowly but surely the level of political discourse has been eroded over the course of the past twelve months. We should have had more ‘experts’…

There were notable valid candidates shortlisted alongside post-truth, ‘adulting’ being my favourite – something I say but never do. And who can forget the brilliant ‘Brexiteer’ which, although a fine term, has also been used interchangeably with ‘Brexiter’ and thus perhaps slashing its frequency.

The word of the year has been met with typical upset due to its unfortunate negative connotation. This is understandable but the way I see it is that it’s better to reflect the year than steer clear of politics altogether. Coulrophobia* anyone?! Exactly. The right choice has been made.

Debate don’t deteriorate

Whilst it is great that language is evolving and reflecting the ways in which we speak, we have to maintain a certain level of critique before throwing in any old word that appears to be said a fair bit. It is of paramount importance that dictionaries like the OED don’t dumb down to wider society with fads that genuinely don’t have staying power. Some don’t agree with this view and feel even if it has gained the slightest fraction of momentum with a tiny portion of society it deserves inclusion. The only way to respond to that: fuhgeddaboudit!

*The fear of clowns. Assumed to have gained popularity due to the clown scare craze from Sep/Oct