Shopping Basket

Behind-The-Books Blog

What would be your word of the year?

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

The Oxford English Dictionary annually chooses a Word of the Year, and last week they announced their 2011 choice. Except, as Will Gompertz of the BBC pointed out, it’s not even a word; it’s an expression. And if you ask me, it’s not a very catchy one.

‘Squeezed middle’. That’s the word the OED feel encapsulates 2011. I’ve never heard anyone use it, have you? Apparently Ed Miliband coined it. That might explain why it hasn’t caught on. But here’s OED’s definition: ‘the section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty, consisting principally of those on low or middle incomes’.

I think they should have chosen something a bit more emblematic of the year. How about ‘winning’ (thanks Charlie), Berlusconi’s mysterious ‘bunga bunga’, or perhaps one I’ve come up with myself in the past week, ‘Clarkson’ as in ‘doing a Clarkson’ (i.e. being an offensive idiot)? I think this one could catch on…

What would be your word of the year?

Sara Magness, Editorial Administrator

Leave a Comment

  • Currently we are...

  • …Liking

    Lesley: This charming blog by a Penguin book collector, A Prenguin a Week.

  • …Reading

    Going Too Far, by Catherine Alliott. Susie: I rarely read 'girly' books but came across Alliott a few years ago. I've read 3 of her books thus far, and was delighted to spot this one for 30p in a charity shop. I've not opened it as yet but am hoping for another witty, grown-up, middle-class romcom, with lots of 4x4s and country houses!

  • …Tweeting