Let’s face it: Once a person is labeled as “toxic,” there’s no coming back from that. Just Google the word and you’ll find a glut of stories about how to spot “toxic” people or how to remove them their lives. So it’s no surprise the Oxford Dictionary chose toxic as its 2018 Word of the Year.
The word, an adjective, goes way back in time, to ancient Greece, when warriors smeared the lethal poison toxikon pharmakon on the tips of their arrows. It showed up as the Latin word toxicus in Medieval times, meaning “poisoned” or “imbued with poison.”
So how did it wend its way into our vernacular to describe something other than something that might kill you or make physically ill, like toxic Tide Pods gobbled down as some sort of freaky challenge rather than used for their original purpose?
“In its original, literal use, to refer to poisonous substances, ‘toxic’ has been ever-present in discussions of the health of our communities, and our environment,” Oxford explained in a video, saying it has “truly taken off into the realm of metaphor, as people have reached for the word to describe workplaces, schools, cultures, relationships and stress.”
Oxford said the #MeToo movement has “put the spotlight on toxic masculinity,” and that “the word has been applied to the rhetoric, policies, agendas and legacies of leaders and governments around the globe.”
Further explaining its choice, Oxford said its Word of the Year “is a word or expression that is judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance.”
“In 2018, toxic added many strings to its poisoned bow becoming an intoxicating descriptor for the year’s most talked about topics,” Oxford said. “It is the sheer scope of its application, as found by our research, that made toxic the stand-out choice for the Word of the Year title.”
Oxford noted a 45 percent rise in the number of times people looked up the word on oxforddictionaries.com over the last year. Users were looking for the word in both its literal and metaphorical applications. The top 10 searches for collocates — that means words that are habitually used alongside toxic — were, according to frequency:
Toxic beat out several runners-up:
“Big Dick Energy,” or BDE for short: Blame this one on pop star Ariana Grande, who used the phrase in a June tweet (since deleted) to comment on the physical endowment of then fiancé and now husband, comedian Pete Davidson.
Cakeism: Americans don’t use it much, but the neologism — a newly coined word or phrase — is big in the United Kingdom., where it is used to explain the terms under which Great Britain will leave the European Union As Oxford explains it, cakeism builds on Brits’ love of cake and the belief Great Britain can exit the European Union while still enjoying its benefits.
Gammon: This is another word primarily used in the U.K. to describe an older middle-class white man whose face becomes flushed while expressing political opinions. Oxford explains it was originally used to describe a fleshy, pink meat served in pubs with pineapple, fried egg or both, it enjoyed a resurgence in 2018 as a derogatory term used in political circles.
Gaslighting: Americans know and use this word — the action of psychologically manipulating someone into believing a lie or doubting their own sanity. It comes from the 1938 play “Gas Light” by Patrick Hamilton, in which a man manipulates his wife to believe she is going insane, Oxford says. In the United States, it has been used in the context of politics, particularly when talking about President Trump.
Incel: The noun has been used to describe a member of an online community of young men who believe themselves to be unable to attract women sexually, are “involuntarily celibate” and who are hostile toward men and women who are sexually active, according to Oxford.
Orbiting: Oxford says the dating buzzword came into popularity when Anna Iovine used it in her Man Repeller blog to describe a blossoming relationship that ended abruptly when her now former suitor stopped communicating with her directly, but engaged with her on social media.
Overtourism: This is when hordes of tourists descend on a popular destination, diminishing the quality of life for those who live there, Oxford says.
Techlash: This portmanteau — the combination of two words to form a third — means what you think it does, and was coined as a negative reaction to the growing influence of technology companies, particularly Silicon Valley tech companies, according to Oxford.
(AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File)
Click Here: cheap kanken backpack