‘Youthquake’ is Oxford word of 2017
DEFIANT Millennials took the lead in protest rallies using social media and other means to express outrage.
LONDON — Oxford Dictionaries recognized the power of the millennial generation Friday with its 2017 word of the year : youthquake.
Oxford lexicographers say there was a fivefold increase in use of the term between 2016 and 2017.
It is defined as “a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people.”
The word, coined almost 50 years ago by then-Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, has been used to describe phenomena including surging youth support for Britain’s Labor Party and the election of 30-something leaders in France and New Zealand.
Each year, Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that reflects the annual mood. Oxford Dictionaries president Casper Grathwohl said youthquake has “yet to land firmly on American soil, but strong evidence in the U.K. calls it out as a word on the move.”
Runners-up included broflake — a man who is readily upset or offended by progressive attitudes that conflict with his views— and kompromat, a Russian term for compromising information collected for political leverage.
Oxford Dictionaries consultant Susie Dent said many of the year’s standout words “speak to fractured times of mistrust and frustration.”
“In ‘youthquake’ we find some hope in the power to change things, and had a little bit of linguistic fun along the way,” she said. “It feels like the right note on which to end a difficult and divisive year.”
Last year’s word of the year was “post-truth.”
