Omnishambles: Word of the Year

Omnishambles beats YOLO to be named word of the year by Oxford English Dictionary


Malcolm Tucker may have taken his last bow on our screens, but the Oxford English Dictionary reckon he’s left a lasting legacy.

The ‘Thick of It’ anti-hero’s phrase “omnishambles” has been chosen by the organisation as their Word of the Year.

Prince of Darkness Tucker (Photo: BBC)

OU Press lexicographer Susie Dent described the Word of the Year as “a word, or expression, that we feel has attracted a great deal of interest during the year to date.”

Dent will be recognisable to many students from her role on Countdown, where she is the in-house language expert.
The word returned to prominence when used by Ed Miliband in April this year to mock the government’s incompetence.

It is defined by Oxford University Press as “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterised by a string of blunders and miscalculations”.

Other contenders included “mummy porn”, “pleb” and “YOLO”.  The winner of the American award was computer term “GIF”, standing for graphics interchange format.