‘Cancel culture’ named the Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year

The Macquarie Dictionary has revealed the words of the year, with the winner best capturing this year’s vibe.

In another reminder that the year is quickly hurtling towards its end, the Macquarie Dictionary has announced the winner of its 2019 Word of the Year.

The annual competition puts Macquarie Dictionary’s committee of eight to the task of selecting a word from a long list that best captures the current “zeitgeist” or vibe of the past year.

Last year’s winner was the phrase Me Too, and the 2017 winner was the then relevant but now hugely perplexing phrase Milkshake Duck.

This year, the winning words are “cancel culture”, which the committee defined as “the attitudes within a community which call for or bring about the withdrawal of support from a public figure, such as cancellation of an acting role, a ban on playing an artist’s music, removal from social media, etc., usually in response to an accusation of a socially unacceptable action or comment by the figure. Also, call-out culture, outrage culture.”

The committee went on to say cancel culture was “a term that captures an important aspect of the past year’s zeitgeist … an attitude which is so pervasive that it now has a name, society’s cancel culture has become, for better or worse, a powerful force”.

Macquarie Dictionary's Word of the Year 2019.

Cancel culture is a relatively recent phenomenon, whereby people call for a boycott of a public figure and their careers, products or businesses because of real or perceived harm.

An example is the destruction of the career of disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein following the Me Too campaign and dozens of accusations of sexual assault against him.

The concept has come under mockery and derision in recent times, with former president Barack Obama saying the idea of political “purity” and calling out others was not sustainable.

“This idea of purity and you’re never compromised and you’re politically woke, and all that stuff – you should get over that quickly,” Mr Obama said.

“One danger I see among young people, particularly on college campuses, is that I do get a sense among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, that the way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people and that’s enough.”

Eco-anxiety received an honourable mention.

Three other words received honourable mentions in the Macquarie Dictionary’s competition this year.

The first was “eco-anxiety”, a phrase meaning “feelings of distress and fear brought on by the effects of climate change”.

According to the Macquarie Dictionary, the word “just edged out ‘flight shaming’ for an honourable mention”.

The term “reflects a strongly emotional aspect to attitudes to climate change, which is clearly something which has been of great concern in 2019”.

“Thicc”, a colloquial word meaning curvaceous and voluptuous, also received an honourable mention.

“Ngangkari”, a Pitjantjatjara word for an indigenous practitioner of bush medicine, also received an honourable mention.

The Macquarie Dictionary also holds an annual People’s Choice Awards, which you can vote in here.

Ngangkari, an indigenous language word meaning practitioner of bush medicine, also received an honourable mention.

AS did Thicc, meaning curvaceous, voluptuous.