oxford chooses 'omnishambles' as word of the year

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_BRITAIN_WORD_OF_THE_YEAR?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-11-13-05-07-47

LONDON (AP) -- Britain's media are in a meltdown and its government is gaffe-prone, so Oxford Dictionaries has chosen an apt Word of the Year: "omnishambles."

Oxford University Press on Tuesday crowned the word - defined as "a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations" - its top term of 2012.

Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year. The publisher typically chooses separate British and American winners. This year's American champion is "gif," short for graphics interchange format, a common format for images on the Internet.

The editors said gif was being recognized for making the crucial transition from noun to verb, "to gif": to create a gif file of an image or video sequence, especially relating to an event. And, inevitably, to share it online. Cute kittens, Olympic champions, President Obama - they've all been giffed.

[reformist2]

1. romneyshambles >> omnishambles

[Posteritatis]

2. That immediately became my new favorite word. (nt)