‘Fake news’ tops 2018’s banned words list

Phrase gets No. 1 vote among tongue-in-cheek list of terms such as ‘covfefe,’ ‘impactful’

DETROIT— Let me ask you this: Would a story that unpacks a list of tiresome words and phrases be impactful or a nothingburger? Worse, could it just be fake news?

Northern Michigan’s Lake Superior State University on Sunday released its 43rd annual “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.” The tongue-in-cheek, non-binding list of14 words or phras- es comes from thousands of suggestions to the Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., school.

This year’s list includes “let me ask you this,” “unpack,” “impactful,” “nothingburger,” “tons,” “dish,” “drill down,” “let that sink in” and the top vote-getter, “fake news.”

The others are “pre-owned,” “onboarding/offboarding,” “gig economy” and the redundant “hot water heater.” Also on the list is the Trumpian Twitter typo “covfefe.”

While the list contains a little political flavour, Lake Superior State spokesperson John Shibley said he had expected more, given the highly divisive 2016 United States presidential election followed by a year of deepening divisions both in government and the electorate. “It wasn’t as focused on politics in a very dirty sense,” he said. “Most of the nominations were well-thought-through . . . considering how the year was.”

As evidence, he points to “fake news,” which garnered between 500 and 600 votes. The phrase has been levelled against entirely fabricated reporting, stories that contain errors or inaccuracies, and those with a critical tone. It has even been wielded as a cudgel against entire news networks. It was found to be the secondmost-annoying word or phrase used by Americans in an annual Marist College poll, behind “whatever.”

“I think a lot of people know fake news when they see it. It can be propaganda, it can be satire,” Shibley said. “It’s used deliberately to paint a certain story or notion as not being true.”

While some words are perennial nominees, others really speak to a particular time and may soon lose relevance. “Covfefe” — which was contained in a fragmented tweet sent from U.S. President Donald Trump’s account on May 31 — became shorthand for a social-media mistake, Shibley said.

Lake Superior State and Marist have company in tracking and trumpeting mass word usage.

“Youthquake,” defined as “a significant cultural, political or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people,” is Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year. Oxford lexicographers said there was a fivefold increase in use of the term — coined a half-century ago by thenVogue editor Diana Vreeland — between 2016 and 2017. The word has been used to describe youth support for Britain’s Labour Party and the election of 30-something leaders in France and New Zealand.

Merriam-Webster’s 2017 word of the year is “feminism.” Lookups increased 70 per cent over 2016 on Merriam-Webster.com and spiked several times after key events, such as the Women’s March on Washington in January.