Fake news is not fake: news!

Another piece on words, but I feel no sense of shame about that. This time neologisms: new words as announced by a dictionary compiler and reported by The Guardian.

Thanks to a certain US political figure (he’s the politician for whom I dare not speak his name) the phrase at the top of the list is ‘fake news’ and DT claims to have invented it. The irony, of course, is that such a claim counts as fake news because its new meaning preceded his usage. But he is the cause of its renewed popularity.

The next thing to mention is that, yes, language evolves over time and that’s a wonderful thing. Also, language is a vehicle for communication so grammar and spelling are important too – but that’s a conversation for another day…