“Youthquake”, defined as “a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people”, has been selected by Oxford Dictionaries as the 2017 word of the year.
The term saw a 401% increase in usage year-on-year as 2017 saw the often-maligned millennial generation drive political change. The publishers cited the UK and New Zealand general elections as examples of young voters mobilising to support opposition parties.
Youthquake was chosen off a shortlist of 10 words that includes other timely political terms, including Antifa – a shortening of “anti-fascist” that has morphed over time to become a proper noun for a political movement – and kompromat – a word for compromising information gathered to be used in blackmail, typically for political purposes. It made headlines in September, when Russian politician Nikita Isaev threatened to “hit Donald Trump with our kompromat” on state TV.
Other words in the running this year include broflake, a label for men who are easily enraged by progressive attitudes that conflict with their views; unicorn, a description for items of food and drink that are altered to be colourful and glittery; and Milkshake Duck, a term for a person or thing that inspires a positive reaction on social media, but is revealed to have a negative past. Taking its name from an internet meme, this phenomenon has most recently been observed in the case of Keaton Jones, an American child who appeared in an emotional video about bullying, but whose parents were revealed to have posed with Confederate flags.
While the word of the year is usually added to Oxford dictionaries, youthquake is already listed; it was originally coined in the 1960s by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland to describe how British youth were changing fashion and music around the world.
Lexicographer Susie Dent said the 2017 shortlist showed that “there’s not a lot of sunshine in the standout words this year. Words like Antifa and kompromat speak to fractured times of mistrust and frustration. In youthquake we finally found some hope in the power to change things, and had a little bit of linguistic fun along the way. It feels like the right note on which to end a difficult and divisive year.”https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/15/youthquake-named-2017-word-of-the-year-by-oxford-dictionaries
