As the year comes to a close, it’s time for all the end-of-year/best of 2017 announcements to blow up the internet. We’ve heard Dictionary.com’s word of the year, complicit, which threw some shade at Ivanka Trump. Now get ready for Oxford’s Dictionary: youthquake!
Confused? Don’t worry we are too. ‘Youthquake’ isn’t really a term tossed around too much. In fact, is it even a term? Yes, just one we haven’t gotten well acquainted with. NOTE: this word is meant to be representative of the whole world, not just the U.S. For those who are just as confused I am, let’s take a look at what it actually means:
Alright, it has a positive connotation. While we think of 2017 as a year of turmoil and, well, absolute trash here in United States, ‘youthquake’ could just be foreshadowing our country’s fate (???). The term has been very popular in the UK, and while it hasn’t made its big mark on US soil yet, it touches on the idea that millennials are the real game-changers. “The word first built momentum in the wake of the British polls in June when young voters almost carried the Labour Party to an unlikely victory,” according to Casper Grathwohl, President of Dictionaries. Unfortunately, the United States can’t relate as our election season was pretty brutal and, well, uhh, not very democratic. As a result, Twitter users in the states had a field day after hearing Oxford’s choice.
The Dictionary people: the word of 2017 is #youthquake!
Everyone else: pic.twitter.com/N7T5cyxGGH— Alex Davies (@alexanderdavies) December 15, 2017
"youthquake" is an appropriate choice for 2017 word of the year because it's the stupidest fucking thing I've ever heard
— Tim Murphy (@timothypmurphy) December 16, 2017
Actual pictures of the man at Oxford Dictionaries who made ‘#youthquake’ word of the year. pic.twitter.com/BJ6XAhNV2E
— HaveIGotNewsForYou (@haveigotnews) December 15, 2017
'Youthquake' is the Oxford Dictionary word of the year. Kind of ironic, given that 2017 didn't belong to young people who care about the future. It was dominated by miserable old sods who want to plunge us back into their fantasy of what the past was like.
— Michael Moran (@TheMichaelMoran) December 15, 2017
Even corporate brand twitters poked fun at it, DANG.
Severe delays on the Central line due to a youthquake.
Severe delays on all other lines due to no one knowing what a youthquake is.
— TLF Travel Alerts (@TlfTravelAlerts) December 15, 2017
Youthquack #Youthquake pic.twitter.com/ZOkMmKhi7S
— Alistair Coleman (@alistaircoleman) December 15, 2017
Do we have any faith in the youth to provoke significant change? Or is this word just a doozy? Let us know in the comments below!