Oxford Dictionaries has chosen their “word of the year,” and it is an interesting reflection of the current 2016 culture.
The word, according to Time.com, is “post-truth.”
Oxford defines it this way:
“post-truth: relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
Taking into account this year’s unorthodox politics, especially in the U.K. and the U.S. with the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s election, many believe the word is an appropriate definition of the time in which we live.
Oxford notes that the word “post-truth” has been in use since at least 1992, but that its popularity has increased by 2,000 percent in the past year. The word is also often used to describe politics.
“It’s not surprising that our choice reflects a year dominated by highly-charged political and social discourse,” said Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries. “Fueled by the rise of social media as a news source and a growing distrust of facts offered up by the establishment, post-truth as a concept has been finding its linguistic footing for some time.”
Other words that were high up on Oxford’s list this year include “adulting,” “alt-right,” and “woke.”
Photo courtesy: Thinkstockphotos.com
Publication date: November 18, 2016