Word of the year
02/11/22 02:48
Dictionaries have played a big role in my life. My Great Uncle Ted, for whom I am named made a home-made dictionary stand that would hold an unabridged dictionary. He lived a very modest life in a very small house with little furniture, but that dictionary stand had a prominent place in the living room. When he came to the end of his life, the dictionary stand moved to my parents’ home. Later, when my mother downsized and moved away from our childhood home, the dictionary stand came to live in our home. Finally, when it was time for us to leave South Dakota and move out to Washington, the dictionary stand left our family. It, along with an unabridged dictionary, went to Good Will. I hope it found a new home with someone who loves dictionaries.
When our children were living at home and were occasionally invited to share a meal at a friend’s home, one of them commented to me, “Other families don’t keep dictionaries at the dinner table.” It was the first time I had thought of the topic. Susan and I had been turning to dictionaries to clarify our conversations for decades by that time. I can’t exactly remember how we graduated from the Webster’s College Editions we used when we were students to the two different unabridged dictionaries that we kept at hand when our children were growing up. I can remember spending evenings reading from dictionaries to each other. When we moved to Chicago to attend graduate school, I discovered the Oxford English Dictionary. For years, I would run my hands over editions of the OED at used book stores, add up the cost of acquisition, and decide that it wasn’t time yet. When I got access to the OED online version, my life began to change.
Our children and our nieces and nephews received dictionaries as high school graduation gifts. Somewhere in the selection of dictionaries as gifts, I began to put confidence in the Collins English Dictionary. They published a one volume dictionary that carried a lot of contemporary words yet wasn’t too big to pack into a box bound for a college dorm room.
We don’t keep a dictionary at the dinner table any more. These days we pull out our smart phones and search the internet for the meaning of words. I am not only enamored with online dictionaries, I also gravitate to news stories about dictionaries.
Each year Collins Learning, publishers of the Collins English Dictionary, publishes a list of ten words or phrases that “reflect our ever-evolving language and the preoccupations of those who use it.” This year’s list appears in today’s online edition of the Washington Post. The BBC website got the jump on the Washington Post and published the list yesterday. The word of the year for 2022 that tops the list is one that I haven’t begun to use. It will, I believe, become part of my active vocabulary.
Permacrisis - a word describing the feeling of living through a period of war, inflation, and political instability - is the Collins Dictionary word of the year. The spell checker in my computer hasn’t learned it yet and marks each entry with a red dotted line alerting me to spelling mistakes.
Around the world there are many people who have the feeling of living in an ongoing state of anxiety and uncertainty. The unending election cycles in the United States with candidates who refuse to concede defeat, a pandemic that continues to bring fear of debilitating and sometimes fatal illness, weather extremes that bring record-setting storm after record-setting storm, the war in Ukraine, deep political divisions that include the rise of fascism and political violence, rapidly rising costs of basic items such as food and clothing, and an on-going energy crisis are just some of the realities in our world that lead to a sense that crisis is not just a temporary reality, but something that will be a part of our lives for as long as they last. We need a word for all of this and permacrisis is that word.
For a little while, however, I will have to be careful when using the term, as the auto correct in my computer wants to substitute perniosis, which is inflammation of small blood vessels caused by an abnormal reaction to the cold. The spell checker also doesn’t know that word and tries to substitute prognosis. You can see why automated dictionaries are poor substitutes for printed dictionaries, but you can also see how we used to get into rending dictionary entries to each other for entertainment.
Six of the word on the Collins top ten list this year are new words this year, including permacrisis. Some of those words will be used by citizens of the UK more than by those of us in the US: Carolean - of or relating to Charles III of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or his reign; and Partygate - a political scandal over social gatherings held in British government offices in defiance of public health restrictions. Other words might make it into my vocabulary: Splooting - the act of lying flat on the stomach with the legs stretched out; Lawfare - the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent; and Quiet quitting - the practice of doing little or no work while being present at one’s place of employment.
Words from previous Collins’ lists have become part of my speaking and writing: lockdown, climate strike, single-use, fake news, Brexit, binge-watch, photobomb, and geek. All of the words on this year’s list, except quiet quitting which is a two-word phrase, are flagged by my spell checker. None of them from previous lists are. Even my spell checker will eventually learn new words.
For what it is worth, I’m disappointed in the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year for 2022. The word for 2021 was vax, a shortened version of vaccine or vaccination. It seemed appropriate. The 2022 word of the year, however, is anti-vaxxer. For me the choice is a disappointment. I hope the editors of the OED spend more time reading dictionaries before next year. Perhaps they should obtain a copy of the Collins Dictionary.
When our children were living at home and were occasionally invited to share a meal at a friend’s home, one of them commented to me, “Other families don’t keep dictionaries at the dinner table.” It was the first time I had thought of the topic. Susan and I had been turning to dictionaries to clarify our conversations for decades by that time. I can’t exactly remember how we graduated from the Webster’s College Editions we used when we were students to the two different unabridged dictionaries that we kept at hand when our children were growing up. I can remember spending evenings reading from dictionaries to each other. When we moved to Chicago to attend graduate school, I discovered the Oxford English Dictionary. For years, I would run my hands over editions of the OED at used book stores, add up the cost of acquisition, and decide that it wasn’t time yet. When I got access to the OED online version, my life began to change.
Our children and our nieces and nephews received dictionaries as high school graduation gifts. Somewhere in the selection of dictionaries as gifts, I began to put confidence in the Collins English Dictionary. They published a one volume dictionary that carried a lot of contemporary words yet wasn’t too big to pack into a box bound for a college dorm room.
We don’t keep a dictionary at the dinner table any more. These days we pull out our smart phones and search the internet for the meaning of words. I am not only enamored with online dictionaries, I also gravitate to news stories about dictionaries.
Each year Collins Learning, publishers of the Collins English Dictionary, publishes a list of ten words or phrases that “reflect our ever-evolving language and the preoccupations of those who use it.” This year’s list appears in today’s online edition of the Washington Post. The BBC website got the jump on the Washington Post and published the list yesterday. The word of the year for 2022 that tops the list is one that I haven’t begun to use. It will, I believe, become part of my active vocabulary.
Permacrisis - a word describing the feeling of living through a period of war, inflation, and political instability - is the Collins Dictionary word of the year. The spell checker in my computer hasn’t learned it yet and marks each entry with a red dotted line alerting me to spelling mistakes.
Around the world there are many people who have the feeling of living in an ongoing state of anxiety and uncertainty. The unending election cycles in the United States with candidates who refuse to concede defeat, a pandemic that continues to bring fear of debilitating and sometimes fatal illness, weather extremes that bring record-setting storm after record-setting storm, the war in Ukraine, deep political divisions that include the rise of fascism and political violence, rapidly rising costs of basic items such as food and clothing, and an on-going energy crisis are just some of the realities in our world that lead to a sense that crisis is not just a temporary reality, but something that will be a part of our lives for as long as they last. We need a word for all of this and permacrisis is that word.
For a little while, however, I will have to be careful when using the term, as the auto correct in my computer wants to substitute perniosis, which is inflammation of small blood vessels caused by an abnormal reaction to the cold. The spell checker also doesn’t know that word and tries to substitute prognosis. You can see why automated dictionaries are poor substitutes for printed dictionaries, but you can also see how we used to get into rending dictionary entries to each other for entertainment.
Six of the word on the Collins top ten list this year are new words this year, including permacrisis. Some of those words will be used by citizens of the UK more than by those of us in the US: Carolean - of or relating to Charles III of Great Britain and Northern Ireland or his reign; and Partygate - a political scandal over social gatherings held in British government offices in defiance of public health restrictions. Other words might make it into my vocabulary: Splooting - the act of lying flat on the stomach with the legs stretched out; Lawfare - the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent; and Quiet quitting - the practice of doing little or no work while being present at one’s place of employment.
Words from previous Collins’ lists have become part of my speaking and writing: lockdown, climate strike, single-use, fake news, Brexit, binge-watch, photobomb, and geek. All of the words on this year’s list, except quiet quitting which is a two-word phrase, are flagged by my spell checker. None of them from previous lists are. Even my spell checker will eventually learn new words.
For what it is worth, I’m disappointed in the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year for 2022. The word for 2021 was vax, a shortened version of vaccine or vaccination. It seemed appropriate. The 2022 word of the year, however, is anti-vaxxer. For me the choice is a disappointment. I hope the editors of the OED spend more time reading dictionaries before next year. Perhaps they should obtain a copy of the Collins Dictionary.
