‘Toxic’, ‘gammon’ and ‘cakeism’ battle it out for Oxford’s word of 2018
- Dictionary picked ‘toxic’ because it reflected ‘a growing sense of how extreme and at times radioactive, we feel aspects of modern life have become’
Oxford Dictionaries has named “toxic” as its word of the year, citing the adjective’s use to describe everything from the debate around Brexit to the environment.
Defining the word as “poisonous”, Oxford said it had become a “descriptor for the year’s most talked about topics”. The dictionary pointed to a 45 per cent rise in the number of times the word has been looked up on its website, and said it best captured “the ethos, mood, or preoccupations” of 2018, thanks to “the sheer scope” of its application.
First appearing in English in the mid-17th century, from the medieval Latin toxicus, “toxic” has also been used to describe workplaces, schools, relationships, cultures and stress over the last year, said the dictionary.
However, the word was most associated with the word “chemical”, appearing most frequently in discussions about the environment, including “toxic substance”, “toxic gas”, “toxic waste” and “toxic air”.
The debate fostered by the Brexit vote has also been described as a toxic environment, along with the rhetoric of world leaders, said the dictionary, while social media platforms “have come under fire for the toxic impact they have on our mental health”.