Youthquake is 2017's word of the year after Jeremy Corbyn's election campaign
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Loading... - Genevieve Francoise
- 15 Dec 2020
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"Youthquake", "antifa" and "broflake" might have yet to make it into daily vocabulary.
But according to the Oxford Dictionaries, they are the words which will define the year 2017, just as "post-truth" was picked to define 2016.
It has announced "youthquake", referring to the rallying of young people by Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party during the 2017 General Election, as its word of the year.
The word saw a 400 per cent increase in usage between 2016 and 2017, and "highlights the increased awareness of young people’s capacity to influence, and even drive, political change," it said.
Many of the words chosen for the list refer to political turbulence and social change.
"Antifa", meaning groups united by militant opposition to fascism made the list, as did "broflake", a man upset by progressive attitudes which conflict with his more conservative views.
Another, "Milkshake Duck", is something which "initially inspires delight on social media but is soon revealed to have a distasteful or repugnant past".
"Kompromat", a Russian word originally based on the English phrase "compromising material", means material used to blackmail or manipulate someone for political purposes.
Others were more light-hearted. "Gorpcore", meaning the trend for wearing functional, outdoorsy clothing, also made the list, alongside "unicorn", referring to the trend for dousing anything from lattes to bagels in rainbow colours and glitter.
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Dictionaries, said youthquake had taken the top spot because it was a "rare political word that sounds a hopeful note.
"Sometimes you pick a word as the Word of the Year because you recognize that it has arrived, but other times you pick one that is knocking at the door and you want to help usher in," he said.
Corbyn engaged with the UK's foremost grime artists and spoke about topics such as housing and social justice in an attempt to woo younger voters - previously disengaged in politics - into voting for him.
The strategy worked, with youth turnout jumping from 43 per cent in the 2015 election to 64 per cent.
This demographic overwhelming backed Corbyn, leading to seat gains such as Canterbury - a town with a large student group, but which had a 185-year period of always electing Conservative-allied MPs.
This increased engaged of younger voters meant that overall turnout was boosted.
The 20-point increase in turnout among 18-24 year olds helped increase turnout to 69.1 per cent.
