Permacrisis, Or Extended Instability, Emerges As UK’s Word Of The Year

Other popular words include the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and “lawfare”, the strategic use of law to intimidate or hinder an opponent.

Collins Dictionary

Source : Twitter/@CollinsDict

The UK’s cost of living crisis, political upheavals and global conflict has resulted in "permacrisis" emerging as the Word of the Year for 2022, according to Collins Dictionary on Tuesday.

The new term, which is defined as “an extended period of instability and insecurity”, has been named Collins Word of the Year 2022 after it observed a 20-fold increase in its use over the year.

It is one of several words Collins highlights that relate to ongoing crises the UK and the world have faced and continue to face, including political instability, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, climate change, and inflation, and also the lingering impact of the pandemic with the fallout of the scandal over law-breaking lockdown parties continuing to play out.

“The current permacrisis also happens to be responsible for some of the other words on this year’s shortlist – not surprising given its all-consuming nature,” Collins said.

“Partygate, of course, is one of the events that set off the period of political turbulence whose ramifications are still playing out. It proves that the “-gate” suffix – made famous by the discovery of secret recordings in Washington DC’s Watergate Hotel – still has some life in it,” it said.

Collins, which draws up the list based on usage of words, saw a jump in the use of “Carolean” – to describe the reign of King Charles, and splooting – the way that animals stretch to cool down.

Other popular words include the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and “lawfare”, the strategic use of law to intimidate or hinder an opponent.

The phrase “vibe shift”, which implies a prevailing mood being replaced by another, has also been in much use this year.

The attraction of so-called warm banks, or places where those too poor to heat their own homes can gather in the event of a cold snap, reflects the current energy crisis times.

Sportswashing, or using sporting event promotions to distract from other controversial issues, and quiet quitting, or workers doing only their minimum contractual work, are among some of the other new popular words.

“Language can be a mirror to what is going on in society and the world and this year has thrown up challenge after challenge,” said Alex Beecroft, the managing director of Collins Learning.

“It is understandable that people may feel, after living through upheaval caused by Brexit, the pandemic, severe weather, the war in Ukraine, political instability, the energy squeeze and the cost-of-living crisis, that we are living in an ongoing state of uncertainty and worry; ‘permacrisis’ sums up quite succinctly just how truly awful 2022 has been for many people,” he said.

The lexicographers at Collins Dictionary monitor a massive 18-billion-word database and a range of media sources, including social media, to create the annual list of new and notable words of the year.

Last year’s word of the year was NFT or non-fungible token, which reflected the relatively new trend of unique cryptographic digital identifiers tokenising real world assets.

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