Words we’ll never hear the same after 2016

When newspapers or organizations pick words of the year, they usually try for something that will sum up the previous 12 months (“surreal”: Merriam-Webster 2016 word of the year). Or, they get all political and try to make a statement (“occupy”: American Dialect Society 2011 word of the year). The following are neither. Tristin Hopper explores the words that will never be heard quite the same after 2016.

LIT

Hip scenester types have been using “lit” for some time to refer to a state of intoxication or a general sense of excitement (“this party is lit!”). But in 2016 it entered the mainstream. However, it’s entirely possible that “lit” may soon end up like “groovy,” “bully” or “tubular” — an outdated word that will henceforth be used to make fun of this era. The tattooed hipsters at Vice seem to think so.

HUGE

Donald Trump doesn’t say “huge” anymore. After the president-elect started noticing that everyone was mocking his signature pronunciation of the word as “yuge,” he started replacing it with such substitutes as “great” or “tremendous.” But the damage had been done. Saying the phrase “one million dollars” in a room is still likely to prompt at least one wag to raise their pinky to their mouth and attempt an impression of the Mike Myers movie character Dr. Evil. From now on, nothing will be called “huge” without some would-be comedian attempting a bad Donald Trump impression.

ALEPPO

This is obviously not a new word; some version of the name “Aleppo” has existed for centuries to describe the city at what is now the northwest corner of Syria. But, like Passchendaele, Carthage, Fallujah and Gettysburg, for much of the world the name “Aleppo” is now inextricably linked with what happened there in 2016. This may change in the future, of course. Plenty of people attend conferences in Warsaw without thinking of the city’s virtual erasure during the Second World War.

ZIKA

Go back two years, and the only media mention of “Zika” was when it was somebody’s name. In 2013, for instance, Hampton Affiliates CEO Steve Zika told a conference in Prince George, B.C., that the lumber industry remained profitable. But the Ebola outbreaks of 2015 had only barely wrapped up before 2016 dawned with warnings about a mosquito-borne illness that could cause babies to be born with abnormally small heads. Perhaps the word “Zika” will one day be like “thalidomide” — a word used to describe a medical threat whose imminent risk is gone, but whose effects unfortunately remain.

DEPLORABLE

Twelve months ago, this was just another synonym for “bad” that was usually paired with the word “conditions” (as in “the hostages were kept in deplorable conditions”). Then Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton used the term “basket of deplorables” to refer to the supporters of Donald Trump — and it was immediately adopted around the world as a proud code-word for anyone who supported some version of protectionist nationalism. This is the last Donald Trump-related word on this list, I swear.

ADULT

Just like the tech giant Apple, the English language didn’t see a lot of inventions this year. Instead, it just worked on packaging its existing products. Thus, we saw the rise of the word “adult” as a verb, as in “I can’t adult today” or “don’t make me adult.” The word has been used in past decades as a synonym for “racy” or “risqué”; the “adulting” of a film, for instance. But it now it refers to doing something boring or responsible. According to Merriam-Webster, this use of “adult” or “adulting” exploded in the first six months of 2016.

SNOWFLAKE

It is the ironclad duty of every generation to find a good, solid word with which to insult young people. Plenty of baby boomers, for instance, grew up being slagged with the insult “longhairs” by their uptight Second World War veteran parents. And now we have “snowflake,” a slam aimed primarily at fragile, easily offended millennials (as in “what, are you triggered now, snowflake?”). The word in this context has existed since at least the 1990s (it’s even in the 1999 film Fight Club), but it took off in recent months as a reflexive retort to leftwing activists. Interestingly, “snowflake” is often used in instances where “girl,” “woman” or “queer” would have sufficed in a less enlightened age. So, for anybody being branded a “snowflake,” consider it progress.