It may not be a surprise that this writer is also an incredible word nerd and every year, I anxiously wait to see what the Oxford Word of the Year will be. I've always been fascinated when a new word is introduced into our lexicon or one is given that top spot of being THE word of the year. Like in 2013, when selfie took home the honor of Word of the Year. I love that our language is a living thing. Words die, words are born, it's a beautiful circle of vocabulary life.
Last year, the word of the year was "youthquake" and I will be honest, it instantly made me feel old. I'm in that middle generation, the one sandwiched between GenX and Millennials. I don't want to speak for an entire generation, but we sometimes feel like we don't have a home. We've never had some cool (or uncool) label about who we are. So when I heard youthquake, it was just another moment where I felt left out of the movement, again.
2018 Word of the Year
So what was last year's big word? Ready? Toxic. Yup. Toxic relationship, toxic air, toxic masculinity. Toxic. That was the big buzz word of 2018. Chemicals is the word that wins the spot for appearing next to our award winning word the most in 2018. There is probably more I could say about this, but for now, can I start to petition the award winner for 2019?
How does the word sustainable sound? That gets my early vote. Let's just keep finding reasons to say that one.
I hope your New Year is full of diverse and interesting words.