Overshare and photobomb top lists of 2014's new words and phrases
Information was released by Chambers and Collins English Dictionary
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Overshare and photobomb are 2014’s words of the year, according to Collins and Chambers dictionaries.
Announced yesterday, the put-down overshare was described as “beautifully British” and a “subtle, yet devastating” insult by Chambers editorial director David Swarbrick.
“Some words were more celebratory; others more exacting. But ‘overshare’ won because it was pointedly relevant to so many of the other words that were considered,” Mr Swarbirck said to the Guardian.
Overshare topped a list which included bashtag, ‘a hashtag used for critical or abusive comments’; digital native, ‘a person who has learned to use computers as a child’; and hipster, redefined from its previous definition (‘a person who knows and appreciates up-to-date jazz; a member of the beat generation, 1950s and early 1960s’) to ‘a member of the generation born in the 1980-90s who look down on their native middle-class culture, and self-consciously adopt a bohemian lifestyle and mode of dress’.
“Social networking has created a whole new vocabulary,” added Mr Swarbrick, citing words and phrases such as gripe sites, click fraud, and fraping.
Meanwhile, Collins Dictionary announced photobomb as their word of the year, having beaten off devo max and bakeoff to capture "the essence of 2014”.
Collins English Dictionary’s consultant lexicographer Ian Brookes said to The Independent: “Its vastly increased prominence in 2014 shows the power of media and sporting events to publicise a word and bring it into wider use.”
Although used for a few years (the first recorded mention of photobomb is a Google search in 2008) Mr Brookes cited Benedict Cumberbatch’s famous photobomb of U2 at the Oscars earlier this year, as well as the regal occasion during the Commonwealth Games when the Queen accidentally photobombed two hockey players.
Collins also added 50,000 new words to the 12th edition of the dictionary, including the al desko, meaning to eat at your desk; meme, ‘an idea or element of social behaviour passed on through generations in a culture, esp by imitation’; Bitcoin, ‘a system of open source peer-to-peer software for the creation and exchange of (payment in) a certain type of cryptocurrency’; or textonym - one of two or more words that can be generated by pressing the same key combinations on a mobile phone: 'kiss' and 'lips' are textonyms’.
The word adorkable will also appear in the dictionary, published later this month, after a Twitter campaign saw the word voted in ahead of fefie (farmer selfie) or fatberg (giant lump of fat found in London sewers).
Adorkable, referring to an intellectual person who is nerdy yet endearing, is intended as a compliment and was first used on Twitter in March 2007, hitting its peak in January 2012 according to Collins.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments