Brexit named ‘word of the year’

LEXICOGRAPHERS at Collins dictionary have declared ‘Brexit’ the word of the year after an ‘unheard of’ increase in usage seen in 2016.

Brexit apparently first hit the lexicon in 2013 but usage jumped dramatically by 3,400% this year courtesy of the referendum and ensuing fallout.

“‘Brexit’ is arguably politics’s most important contribution to the English language in over 40 years, since the Watergate scandal gave commentators and comedians the suffix ‘-gate’ to make any incident or scandal infinitely more compelling,” said a Collins representative.

Other contenders were ‘Trumpism’, regarding the Donald Trump phenomenon and his populist ‘policies’, and ‘hygge’, a Danish conceptual word defined as “creating cosy and convivial atmospheres that promote wellbeing” and used by middle-class ‘mom’ bloggers from the US.