OED announces ‘post-truth’ as 2016’s Word of the Year
The term has been in existence for roughly a decade, but the organization reported spikes in its use after UK’s EU referendum and the U.S. presidential election.
On Tuesday, Oxford English Dictionaries selected “post-truth” as its notable term of 2016.
Post-truth is the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year 2016. Find out more: https://t.co/jxETqZMxsu pic.twitter.com/MVMuMyf83K
— Oxford Dictionaries (@OxfordWords) November 16, 2016
The adjective means: “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
Though “post-truth” has existed for a decade, OED reported a spike in the term’s use, especially in relation to United Kingdom’s EU referendum and the United States presidential election.
Katherine Connor Martin, the head of United States dictionaries at Oxford University Press, said it surged most sharply in June after the Brexit vote and Donald J. Trump’s securing the Republican nomination for president, making it an unusually global word.
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