First of all, a very
Happy New Year to everyone. I hope we leave behind the mostly miserable twelve
months that was 2016 and step over into the next twelve with better things to
look forward to.
In one respect at
least, though, 2016 was a good year. It was a good year for new words and a
number of them have officially passed into the English language by being
accepted into the leading dictionaries. Here are a few of my favourites.
Adulting
Behaving in a
responsible and mature way, particularly in regard to the accomplishment of
mundane or boring tasks. Also used ironically on social media to highlight
behaviour the user actually considers to be childish.
Brexiteer
The mix of ‘Britain’
and ‘exit’ to form Brexit, but in this case to denote someone who supports the
UK leaving the European Union. Follows on from ‘Grexit’ with regard to Greece’s
membership of the EU.
Clicktivism
Someone who limits
their political or societal activism to signing online petitions rather than
taking any real-world action.
Coulrophobia
A fear of clowns. People dressed as sinister clowns have been responsible for some serious attacks
during 2016, so it's hardly surprising that this word has made the list. The word comes from the Greek kōlobatheron, meaning ‘stilt’ from kolon,
‘limb’, after the fact clowns are sometimes seen on stilts.
Earworm
A song that,
regardless of whether you like it or not, gets into your head and stays there,
going round and round, all day. It was also the title of a short story I did
for the CRIME + MUSIC anthology.
Glass cliff
I’ve found two
slightly differing definitions of ‘glass cliff’. One is where a woman or member
of a minority group takes up a leadership position under difficult
circumstances or where the likelihood of failure is high. The other is for a
woman to be selected for a leadership position because the likelihood of failure is high.
HTTP 451
An error code indicating a web page blocked
by censorship or a takedown notice. In reference to Ray Bradbury’s novel FAHRENHEIT 451, it can
be used by sites to make a computer-friendly political statement.
Hygge
A Danish word to
denote a state of happiness and contentment, usually brought about by a roaring
log fire, lit candles, warm drinks, and hand-knitted socks. Pronounced
something like "HUE-gah".
Lemmium
This was the proposed
name for new volatile superheavy chemical element, 115, in honour of Lemmy
Kilmister. Lemmy, who died in 2015, was the legendary frontman of heavy metal
band, Motörhead. Sadly for fans, the Russians insisted on muscovium instead.
Listicle
An article that takes
the form of a list. (Ahem…)
Optic boom
A flash produced when electrons move faster
than light, similar to the sonic boom produced by supersonic jets as the break
the sound barrier. Physicists believe that it is possible to break the ‘light
barrier’ in graphene sheets. The discovery could spark development of optical
circuits a million times faster than silicon chips.
Post-truth
This word was Word of
the Year 2016 according to Oxford
Dictionaries, and has seen a sharp rise in popularity over the past year,
despite having been in use for more than a decade. It means ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are
less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal
belief’. With the various elections and referenda that have taken place during
2016, the spike in usage of post-truth
is perhaps not surprising …
Quintastic
A merger of the prefix ‘quin’ with ‘fantastic’,
used to refer to a fifty-something person who remains smart, energetic, sexy,
and successful. Particularly used in relation to someone famous.
Stentrode
An electrode slipped into a cranial blood
vessel through a catheter. By transmitting brain signals, it could allow
quadriplegics to operate an exoskeleton.
Textalyzer
A gadget that would enable the police to
test your phone to see if you were texting before a car crash. As yet, though,
it is not designed to gather private information, only whether the phone was in
use at the time of the accident.
