Youthquake . . . how election gave us the word of the year

THEY struggled out of bed and turned out to vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

And it seems the impact youngsters had on politics has not gone unnoticed, as ‘youthquake’ is Oxford Dictionaries’ Word of the Year.

The word, defined as ‘a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people’, saw a 400 per cent increase in its usage this year – despite Labour losing to the Tories.

It beat ‘Antifa’, which means antifascist, ‘bro-flake’, to describe a man who is easily offended by liberal attitudes, and ‘milkshake duck’ – a person or thing that initially inspires delight on social media but is soon revealed to have a distasteful past.

Unlike previous winners, such as ‘selfie’ and ‘vape’, ‘youthquake’ is not a new addition to the dictionary.

It was coined in 1965 in response to the changing world of fashion.

However, Oxford Dictionaries claim it is now used to describe the ‘socalled political awakening of millennials’ in this year’s general election, in which 54 per cent of 18 to 24-yearolds voted – up 16 per cent on 2015.