News site of the year

Daily Life
  1. Home
  2. Lifestyle
  3. News & Views

'Fake news' selected as Macquarie Dictionary's Word Of The Year

The impact of the US presidential campaign and the prominence of social media has spilled over into the English language, with Macquarie Dictionary choosing 'fake news' as its word of the year. 

"It [fake news] captures an interesting evolution in the creation of deceptive content as a way of herding people in a specific direction," said the committee of academics, writers and journalists which selected the word. 

Up Next

Dutch TV trolls Trump in welcome video

null
Video duration
02:04

More World News Videos

null
Video duration
02:04

Dutch TV trolls Trump in welcome video
null
Video duration
03:10

The Fed explained
null
Video duration
01:50

Keystone, Dakota pipelines to go ahead
null
Video duration
01:23

Trump approves controversial pipeline
More videos

SHOCKING: 'Fake News' selected word of the year

You're never going to believe what the Macquarie Dictionary has chosen as its word of the year...

"There has come a point with fake news where people are beginning to believe what they want to believe, whether or not the news story is actually true."

Susan Butler, editor of the Macquarie Dictionary, added: "Fake news is being used quite broadly as a smear, it's very hard to refute it, all you can do is produce factual evidence in a world where factual evidence doesn't seem to matter that much."  

Related Content

Macquarie's choice falls in line with other dictionaries' designated words of the year. 

The Oxford English Dictionary announced 'post truth' as its choice in November, and the Merriam-Webster dictionary selected 'surreal' - both chosen due to a significant spike in searches for the words over the past year. 

Advertisement

The Macquarie committee, which included Sydney University vice-chancellor Michael Spence, and journalist Annabel Crabb, also gave the very delicious, and frequently debated 'halal snack pack' an honourable mention saying: "The significance of halal snack pack is that it tells us about something once confined largely to the Muslim community that is now surfacing throughout the broader Australian community."

The Macquarie dictionary defines halal snack pack as "a fast food comprising layers of hot chips, grated cheese, halal doner kebab meat, garlic sauce, barbecue sauce and chilli sauce." Is it lunch time yet? 

'Alt-right' was shortlisted as the political word of the year, an abbreviated term used to refer to the alternative far right wing political movement that has gained momentum and attracted attention around the world over the past year.

'Enby' was also given honourable mention in the selection process, an adjective referring to an individual who does not identify as a male or female.

"Enby is an interesting construction; it has moved from the abbreviation NB (for non-binary) to a word in its own right. Gender identity has been a powerful part of the political discourse in Australia over the past year," the committee said. 

The public vote for Macquarie Dictionary's People's Choice Word for 2016 is open until February 1. The dictionary invites the Australian public to vote on the word they believe has made "the most striking contribution to Australian English."

The shortlist for the people's choice includes 'filter bubble' referring to "an information environment which, because of the ability of search engines on the internet and technology on social media to build on the user's personal preferences, ultimately excludes all information that is not in accord with the user's opinions."

Also shortlisted is 'racebending' coined to describe when the race of a fictional character in a book, TV show or movie is altered for the purpose of recreating it. 

0 comments