Youthquake is Oxford Dictionaries’ word of year

LONDON: Youthquake, defined as “a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people”, has been selected by Oxford Dictionaries as the 2017 word of the year.

The term saw a 401% increase in usage year-onyear as 2017 saw the oftenmaligned millennial generation drive political change. The publishers cited the UK and New Zealand general elections as examples of young voters mobilising to support opposition parties.

Youthquake was chosen off a shortlist of 10 words that includes other timely political terms, including Antifa – a shortening of “anti-fascist” that has morphed to become a proper noun for a political movement – and kompromat – a word for compromising information gathered to be used in blackmail, typically for political purposes. It made headlines in September, when Russian politician Nikita Isaev threatened to “hit Donald Trump with our kompromat”.

While the word of the year is usually added to Oxford dictionaries, youthquake is already listed; it was originally coined in the 1960s by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland to describe how British youth were changing fashion and music around the world.

Lexicographer Susie Dent said the 2017 shortlist showed that “there’s not a lot of sunshine in the standout words this year. Words like Antifa and kompromat speak to fractured times of mistrust and frustration. In youthquake we finally found some hope in the power to change things, and had a little bit of linguistic fun along the way. It feels like the right note on which to end a difficult and divisive year.”

“Youthquake may not seem like the most obvious choice for word of the year, and it’s true that it’s yet to land firmly on American soil, but strong evidence in the UK calls it out as a word on the move,” said Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries.