Group Names 'Dumpster Fire' As Word Of The Year For 2016
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Many described 2016 as a dumpster fire, and now an organization of linguists, lexicographers, grammarians and scholars have named it the word of the year.
American Dialect Society named "dumpster fire" as its word of the year for 2016.
"Defined as 'an exceedingly disastrous or chaotic situation,' the term dumpster fire was selected as best representing the public discourse and preoccupations of the past year," the statement reads.
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The group said dumpster fire "came into prominence" as people used that word to describe the presidential campaign.
"As 2016 unfolded, many people latched on to dumpster fire as a colorful, evocative expression to verbalize their feelings that the year was shaping up to be a catastrophic one," Ben Zimmer, chair of the New Words Committee of the American Dialect Society, said in a statement. "In pessimistic times, dumpster fire served as a darkly humorous summation of how many viewed the year's events."
The group also had several other "word of the year" categories:
POLITICAL WORD OF THE YEAR
Post-truth: belonging to a time in which facts matter less than beliefs and emotions.
WTF WORD OF THE YEAR
Bigly: in a significant manner (from widespread mishearing of Trump's use of big-league).
HASHTAG OF THE YEAR
#NoDAPL: protest against construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline.
MOST CREATIVE
Laissez-fairydust: magical effect brought upon by laissez-faire economics.
SLANG WORD OF THE YEAR
Woke: socially aware or enlightened.
MOST USEFUL / MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
Gaslight: psychologically manipulate a person into questioning their own sanity.
DIGITAL WORD OF THE YEAR
@: (verb) reply on Twitter using the @ symbol.
