Hawks
Haggard
WORDS · LANGUAGE · ETYMOLOGY
WORD OF THE YEAR 2018: IPSEDIXITISM 38%​​
(n.) dogmatic language; the notion that merely saying or asserting something, however untrue, makes it fact
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It was a close-run race between the top two finalists this year, both of which were tied at the top of the leaderboard for a fair few days. But in the end, taking just over a third of the overall vote, the 2018 HH Word of the Year is ipsedixitism—the dogmatic assertion of something as truth, despite its veracity.
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Coined way back in 1885, ipsedixitism comes from the famous Latin tag ipse dixit, literally meaning ‘he said it himself’ (the motto of Ancient Greece’s Pythagorean philosophers, no less.) Saying something is true just because you say it is? That’s ipsedixitism. Not got any evidence to support what you believe but what to state that you believe it anyway? That’s ipsedixitism. And the perfect year to sum up the fake news, post-truth era that was 2018? Apparently that too is ipsedixitism.
THE SHORTLIST
Zenobia 34%
(n.) a powerful, determined woman
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desiderate 17%
(v.) to long for something that is now lost; to desire with loss or regret
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pejorism 7%
(n.) the belief that the world is getting worse
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cock-of-the-company 5%
(n.) a weak man who associates with unpleasant characters solely to act as leader or make himself feel important
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Zenobia so nearly topped this year’s poll that
The name of a third-century queen of Palmyra, who saw off the Roman Empire and grew her kingdom to its greatest ever size, Zenobia has since become a metaphor for any powerful, determined woman. There were plenty of those to choose from in the 2018 headlines, but alas Zenobia was pipped at the post this year by just a few final votes; in fact, voting the was so tight that for a time it looked as if we might end up with joint winners. Elsewhere, having made agathism your Word of the Year back in 2017, this year its direct opposite pejorism—derived from pejor, a Latin word essentially meaning ‘worse’—took fourth place.