More than half the Collins Dictionary 2017 “Word of the Year” shortlist are phrases
“Fake news” has been named word of the year by Collins Dictionary after a 365 per cent rise in use since 2016 and it’s caused both (mild) anger and (mild) confusion.
‘Fake news’ has been declared word of the year. Fake news. It’s two words.
— Mr Quimbly (@RogerQuimbly) November 2, 2017
I'm going to say this once, very clearly, and then we shall never speak of it again. "Fake news" is a two word phrase, not a word
— Martin Belam (@MartinBelam) November 2, 2017
Honestly can't work out if 'Fake News' has been named word of the year or not really.
— Tiernan Douieb (@TiernanDouieb) November 2, 2017
Am i the only one who's a bit annoyed that the word of the year (fake news) is actually two words?! #OxfordDictionary
— jacksonw (@jacksonwild0103) November 2, 2017
"fake news" is word of the year, and to be added to the dictionary.
Two words. Both already in the dictionary.
I give up.
— Adam (@adamguest1985) November 2, 2017
Collins say they will add all the shortlisted words to their website, though you don’t have to be a scholar to know that “fake” and “news” are already in there. It turns out that six out of ten of their shortlisted words of the year are two words. Not that we’re telling a dictionary to look up the meaning of “word”.
1. Fake news
2. Antifa
3. Corbynmania
4. Cuffing season
5. Echo chamber
6. Fidget spinner
7. Gender-fluid
8. Gig economy
9. Insta
10. Unicorn
Fairly sure “unicorn” is already in the dictionary as well – a few chapters after “pedantic”.
