Every year, the Oxford English Dictionary ends the year with a Word of the Year, that is a word that reflects the ethos, moods, or preoccupations of the past year, but still a word that is likely to have longevity as a word of cultural significance.
In 2016, the Word of the Year was a rather apt ‘post-truth’, along with all its Orwellian connotations. And for 2017, the Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Year is…. Youthquake
The noun ‘youthquake’ is defined in the OED as ‘a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people’ and it seems an apt reaction to the post-truth age of 2016.
The data collected by editors showed that youthquake showed a fivefold increase in usage during 2017 compared to the previous year with a big spike during the United Kingdom General Election.
Youthquake was first coined in 1965 as Britain emerged from the Second World War into a period of tumultuous change. At the year’s end Diana Vreeland, editor-in-chief at Vogue declared it the year of the youthquake and the word joined common usage. 2017 saw the biggest resurgence of the word since then, making it Oxford’s Word of the Year 2017.
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