The “Word of the Year” (“WotY”) acts as a linguistic time capsule, offering fascinating insights into the main events and prevailing mood of each passing year.
Fyi, Oxford and Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year do not tend to agree as one is based on American English, and the other is from across the pond. To maintain the 2-minute-or-less promised reading time of this stack, here are a few specific years.
Words of 2014
Merriam-Webster: culture
Oxford University Press: vape
Merriam-Webster’s culture was the most searched word of 2014, beating buzzwords such as autonomy, innovation,and insidious. Meanwhile, Oxford University Press selected vape as their “WotY”.Merriam-Webster: bailout
Words of 2015
Merriam-Webster: –ism
Oxford University Press: 😂
2015 was an odd year for anyone waiting for the release of the “WotY”. Both Merriam-Webster and the Oxford University Press made some peculiar selections. Merriam-Webster’s queries revealed that people were searching for all sorts of words ending with –ism. So instead of choosing one, the dictionary company included them all by declaring their shared suffix as the “Word of the Year”. The Oxford University Press made a significant move by choosing an emoji over an actual word.
Words of 2016
Merriam-Webster: surreal
Oxford University Press: post-truth
2016 was an eventful year even by the standards of the 21st century, with the frequently bizarre US elections and numerous terrorist attacks being heavily reported in the news. Thus, Merriam-Webster chose to sum up this year with surreal. Oxford University Press also wanted to highlight the year’s political tensions, particularly the EU referendum in the UK, by crowning the term post-truth as their “Word of 2016”.
Words of 2019
Merriam-Webster: they
Oxford University Press: climate emergency
Throughout the decade, the gender-neutral pronoun they became more used, peaking in 2019. Despite being frequently adopted, many remained unsure of its usage and decided to look it up in the dictionary. Based on this traffic, Merriam Webster selected the pronoun as the “Word of 2019”. The Oxford University Press, on the other hand, decided to capture the year with the phrase climate emergency, since climate-related topics became yet again a hot topic in the public debate.
For further examples of WotYs, please stay tuned to the next stack.
An instantaneous appraisal of this original essay is one reflecting your careful use of just the right words and the beautifully rendered rose art. That appraisal is “perfection reached.”
My Word of this Moment...MAGNIFICENT...That flower on the dictionary page is MAGNIFICENT!!