Gammon by gaslight

The word of the year, says Collins dictionary, is single-use. It’s typical of our time that single-use plastic bags, taxed at check-outs, are in fact often used repeatedly – finally, in many households, to bundle up rubbish for the dustbin. Other Collins candidates, in what is an annual attempt by rival dictionaries to attract attention, include gammon (a florid-faced white man presumed to hold Right-wing opinions); gaslight (to make a woman, usually, doubt her sanity – named after Patrick Hamilton’s play of 1938); and vegan (which has been around since 1944). It does not add up to an attractive picture of life in 2018. Collins has omitted bercow: to stay after promising to leave, after the Speaker who said he’d be gone last summer. “I’m so tired. Harry came round for a drink last night and kept bercowing.”