Dictionaries have it in for the Trumps

So, the hold of the Trump family over the English language —or at least its popular usage — increases apace.

Early in November, the Collins dictionary named ‘fake news’ as its word of the year for 2017. It was a not-so-subtle allusion to the most high-profile user of the term, US President Donald Trump.

Now, an online lexicon, Dictionary.com has declared ‘complicit’ as its word of the year and once again, the spotlight was on a Trump — this time, First Daughter Ivanka, who used it on a chat show — though the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein revelations also led to the word being thrown at various silent stars.

It is clear, however, that Ms Trump has had a greater impact on language usage than her famously outspoken father as apparently her enunciating ‘complicit’ without elaboration led to a 10,000% rise in searches for the word and even a mock perfume commercial pegged on it.

It remains to be seen whether Oxford and Merriam-Webster also choose words associated with the US First Family. That would be quite a linguistic grand slam for the Trumps.

Of course, both words have led to increased murmurs about another au courant word, ‘subtweeting’ — deriding or criticising someone or something via social media posts without specifically naming them. And, in this matter, both the dictionaries and their targets are complicit.