ALONG with a vast army of two or three people, I always feel ambivalent about Word of the Year (Woty, to use the technical term) announcements, usually because they relate to fashion or, you know, computers.
You’re speaking to a man who wears supermarket trousers (I’ve a nasty feeling there’s a word for that) and who doesn’t tweet. Actually, hitching up my twousers – the word for such a person’s breeks – I see that last year’s Wotties were Brexit and Hygge, the former referring to a vote that liberals don’t like and the latter meaning kinda cosy, and pleasantly Scottiffied by The Herald the other day into “coorie”.
Lest you think I was talking out of my fundament in my opening bombshell paragraph, this year’s Wotties, as determined by Collins Dictionary, include “insta”, which I understand has something to do with photies on computers.
And while there isn’t much about fashion in the clothes sense, there is “Corbynmania”, meaning psychotically trendy enthusiasm for British Labour Party leader Jeremy of that ilk who, you may remember, came to Scotland earlier this year promising us things we already had.
A fascinating twist in this narrative concerns the fact that in the past I coined the term Trustomania, as a tongue-in-cheek word for spiralling membership at the National Trust. It didn’t catch on and, in its brief career, was in fact used – just getting my calculator out – a total of once.
But politics and media considerations top this year’s Collins list, headed as it is by “fake news” which, while I have my calculator out, comes to approximately two words. It’s really “concept of the year”, strictly speaking, and was popularised by Donald Trump, the world’s most powerful man (writing this from my bomb shelter).
To be fair to The Donald, he and his supporters receive a terrible press, and there can be few people left in the world who don’t realise that, furth of Herald Towers, much political reporting nowadays is really a form of activism.
Speaking of which, the other word that got a lot of attention this year was “Antifa”, after the supposedly anti-fascist activist group defined adroitly by the internet meme, “Everybody who disagrees with me is Hitler”.
What a state of affairs. New words tell us much about ourselves (generally speaking, that we’re somewhere on a continuum somewhere between loopy and bonkers), though “fake news” is nothing new, as Hugh McLachlan, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Glasgow Caledonian University, wrote in our columns this week.
It was used against witches. It was used against Cleopatra. It even put words into the mouth of Calgacus, First Minister of Ancient Caledonia, though these admittedly were good words.
I don’t want to strike a controversial note, but Donald Trump is no Calgacus. True, both have shared a concern with immigration (Roman in the case of Calgacus). But, while Calgacus, in my personal translation, spoke of the Romans offering a dessert when all he wanted was a piece, he wasn’t crass enough to say: “Make Caledonia great again.”
Even the SNP has rarely said anything more assertive than: “Under independence, Scotland could be quite good.” Perhaps Americans are just more linguistically brash, though Mark Twain thought pauses more effective than words.
Pretty difficult in a column, though, so moving swiftly on we note that Plato, Wittgenstein and thingummy – God – all recognised the fundamental importance of words. God’s ghost-written autobiography even begins, “In the beginning there was the Word”. We never learn which word, though I like to think it was “mellifluously” or “chiaroscuro” or “splang”.
Alas, new research reveals the Bible was also fake news. No one fed 5,000 punters with half a halibut or turned water into a cheeky wee rosé. However, I’m sure The Donald could satiate all his followers with a bottle of low-alcohol Bud and half a hake. But that would be hake news.
Another much-used expression identified by Collins this year was “echo chamber”, and I guess most of us regard these as ideal forums for debate: everything we say is greeted with approval because it’s only read by people with similar views. What would chance be, brothers and sisters? Correct: a fine thing.
Ach, Word of the Year is a fine thing when you think about it, because it makes us do just that: think. Think about where we’re at and where we’re going. Top word-wangler Willie Shakespeare said: “Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” Another moment’s thought and he might have put “go” before “to”. But there you go.
Imagine a world with no words. It just wouldn’t work (and, more importantly, neither would I). We wouldn’t know what to say. But, thankfully, as the Quite Good Book says: “In the beginning was the Word of the Year.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel