Yesterday, Merriam-Webster announced their “Word of the Year” for 2016, and a more fitting word you’d be hard-pressed to find. The winner–surreal–perfectly summarizes how a lot of us are feeling about the past 12 months.
As you might have guessed, in the world of Internet searches, things like the “Word of the Year” are influenced by the general population. So, “surreal,” an adjective meaning, “marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream,” is obviously how we’re feeling now. Last year’s Oxford Dictionary “Word of the Year” was “😂,”…good times.
Still, “surreal” is the world we’re currently living in, whether you like it or not. Unfortunately, a lot of us don’t get to pick the world we want to live in, but at least we still have our “Word of the Year.”
After yesterday’s electoral college decision, even the most hopeful/delusional among us have to come to grips with reality)…but that’s a more political issue for another day. For now, lets focus on the linguistic version of our reality…or surreality (the noun form of surreal).
More on the Story: TIME
…just for fun:
