Toxic word of the year

Top 10 ‘toxic’ collocates in 2018

by absolute frequency

Chemical

Masculinity

Substance

Gas

Environment

Relationship

Culture

Waste

Algae

Air

Sourced from the Oxford corpus

Beyond the more usual substance warnings, this year toxic chemical has had particular significance as the nerve agent poisoning of a former Russian intelligence officer and his daughter in Britain sent shockwaves around the globe. Ongoing international attention to the case, including rising concern over who has access to the world’s toxic chemical stockpiles, ensured that ‘chemical’ topped the list of words most frequently seen alongside toxic in 2018.

Similarly literal and deadly are toxic substance, toxic gas, and toxic waste, with the latter especially becoming a focal point as the US seeks to combat the spread of toxic waste in the wake of hurricanes and people speak out against businesses burning toxic waste, notably in India.

This burning of toxic waste, resulting in the release of toxic gases, has been identified as one of a number of causes of toxic air. Air pollution has rapidly become a prime public health concern, and global attention reached a high in October 2018 when the World Health Organization published its report into the quality of air breathed by children worldwide. The report described this pollution as toxic air, plainly and potently signifying its poisonous nature, and with the aid of international media coverage, served to consolidate the association of toxicity and poor air quality in our lexicon.

Such pollutants are not only dangerous to our health, but to the health of our environment, and one of the many environmental issues discussed this year has been the toxic algae disaster in Florida, US. Thanks to a central role in the state’s Senate mid-terms race, toxic algae garnered so much commentary that ‘algae’ featured as the ninth-most frequently seen toxic collocate for 2018.

The term toxic environment itself, however, has been more frequently used in reference to harmful workplace environments and the toll this takes on the workforce’s mental health. From overly demanding workloads to outright sexual harassment, many companies have been exposed as crucibles for such toxic culture this year, which has seen mass walkouts at Google, the fashion mogul Philip Green disgraced, and the Speaker of the House of Commons accused of misusing his official powers to cover up allegations of bullying in Westminster.

Toxic relationships are not exclusive to the workplace, however, and whether its partners, parents, or even politicians, this year has seen so much discussion of ‘poisonous’ relationships across our society that ‘relationship’ is the sixth most-seen toxic topic for 2018. One reoccurring element in such discussions has been toxic masculinity.

Our corpus data shows that, after ‘chemical’, ‘masculinity’ is the most-used word in conjunction with toxic this year. With the #MeToo movement putting a cross-industry spotlight on toxic masculinity, and watershed political events like the Brett Kavanaugh Senate judiciary committee hearing sparking international debate, the term toxic masculinity has well and truly taken root in the public consciousness and got people talking in 2018.

As a vocabulary fanatic, this is an exciting time of year for me, because Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has released its top word of the year, along with a shortlist of finalists.

These are words that, as Jeffrey Sherwood, senior assistant editor, U.S. Dictionaries, Oxford University Press USA explains, aren’t necessarily new, but have picked up steam over the course of the year and are trending in both search activity on the Oxford site, as well as on social media and the internet at large.

“Oxford’s process of adding new words is based on a huge database that scrolls the internet and pulls what people are saying,” says Sherwood. “We evaluate computationally how frequently words are being used and what they are being used with to see what is shifting and emerging.»

The word of 2018 is “toxic”, which Sherwood says had a search increase of 45 percent on the site this year. Arguably, this is a far more fascinating word than 2017’s winner “youthquake,” chiefly because “toxic” reflects how single words can expand and change in meaning over time.

‘Toxic’ has evolved from being solely literal to figurative, too

“Toxic” originated in the mid 1600s as the Latin “toxicus,” a derivative of “toxicum,” which comes from the Greek “toxikón,” meaning, “bow poison.”

“The word went form being something very literal until the 20th century. Then around [the emergence of] ‘toxic waste,’ our consciousness was raised at the importance of the word as it related to our environment,” explains Sherwood.

According to Oxford’s research, we’re using “toxic” to describe everything from chemicals and gas to masculinity and relationships.

This shift allowed us to go even further with «toxic» by using it figuratively and metaphorically.

“In the ‘80s, we started to see a number of books on self-help and workplace dynamics where ‘toxic’ began to behave like a buzzword,” says Sherwood. “Soon after we saw ‘toxic relationships’ emerge, but by then it was already in the water [as a word with a figurative meaning] and now it’s reached a level of total saturation.”

According to Oxford’s research, we’re using “toxic” to describe everything from chemicals and gas to masculinity and relationships. We’ve embraced the word as a kind of blanket descriptor for anything deeply but often invisibly harmful.

We’re drawn to ‘toxic’ because it’s feels more unnatural than ‘poison’

But why “toxic” and not “poisonous”, I asked John Black, PhD, chair, Department of English and co-director of Medieval Studies at Moravian College. He thinks it has to do largely with the association we’ve developed of toxins as being unnatural, invasive and often undetectable until some damage is done.

These are connotations that have fed its role in pop psychology.

“The word ‘toxic’, unlike ‘poisonous’ describes something almost monstrous and alien,” says Black. “Poison has more of an association with nature — a rattlesnake or poison ivy, but toxic cannot be distinguished so easily, and it has an insidious edge of mystery. It’s scarier that ‘poisonous’ in that it’s more inorganic. We don’t generally say, ‘poisonous pharmaceuticals,’ for instance. We use it more to describe artificiality, something that doesn’t belong in nature.”

A ‘toxic’ year where ‘gaslight’ and ‘incel’ also made the list

OED’s shortlist of finalists for top words of the year include words that have meanings ranging from semi-dark, like “orbiting”, to downright distressing, like “gaslighting” and “incel.” When I first saw the list I thought, “Wow, what a grim year, if these were the trendiest words.”

Оксфордский словарь по традиции выбрал английское слово года, которое лучше всего отражает настроения и тенденции в современном обществе. В 2018 году им стало прилагательное toxic — «токсичный, ядовитый». Люди использовали его не только в прямом значении, но и в переносном: например, toxic relationship («токсичные отношения», которые отравляют жизнь).

Впервые слово toxic появилось в английском языке в середине XVII века. Оно произошло от средневекового латинского слова toxicus — «отравленный, пропитанный ядом». Цепочка словообразования очень интересна: латинское слово toxicum (яд) было заимствовано из греческого языка. У древних греков было в ходу выражение toxikon pharmakon — так назывался смертельный яд, которым смазывали наконечники стрел перед битвой. 

Лингвисты Оксфордского словаря считают, что у слова toxic большой потенциал как у термина, характеризующего целое культурное явление. Прилагательное часто встречалось в самых громких и обсуждаемых новостях этого года. Эксперты словаря посчитали, что в 2018 году значение слова toxic просматривали на 45% чаще, чем в прошлом. А вот рейтинг слов, в сочетании с которыми использовали это прилагательное (от самого распространенного к менее популярным):

1. Chemical — химикат
2. Masculinity — маскулинность
3. Substance — вещество, субстанция
4. Gas — газ
5. Environment — окружающая среда, обстановка
6. Relationship — отношения
7. Culture — культура
8. Waste — отходы
9. Algae — морские водоросли
10. Air — воздух

Словосочетание toxic chemical популярно в экологических кругах всегда, но в этом году его часто упоминали еще и из-за отравления бывшего российского разведчика Сергея Скрипаля и его дочери. Эксперты словаря говорят, что к делу приковано всеобщее внимание, международная общественность обеспокоена. Это и привело к тому, что chemical лидирует в списке.

Toxic substance, toxic gas и toxic waste продолжают быть такими же ядовитыми в буквальном смысле. Всемирная организация здравоохранения в октябре опубликовала доклад о низком качестве воздуха, которым дышат дети во всем мире. Загрязнение было названо toxic air, это словосочетание подхватили СМИ и сделали его популярным. То, что человек сжигает токсичные отходы, влияет и на другие катастрофы. Например, токсичные водоросли (toxic algae) во Флориде в этом году обильно цвели и выделяли такое количество ядовитых веществ, что тысячи рыб гибли каждый день. 

Словосочетание toxic environment (токсичная среда) чаще всего использовалось при описании вредных или опасных условий на рабочем месте. Общество уделяло огромное внимание жалобам на сексуальные домогательства со стороны начальства и коллег. Были митинги сотрудников Google, запятнал свое имя владелец Topshop Филипп Грин, и даже русскоязычную среду это все не обошло стороной — из-за обвинений в харассменте Иван Колпаков ушел с поста главного редактора «Медузы». 

Тем не менее, toxic relationship — это не только про коллег. В этом году обсуждались токсичные отношения в множестве разных сфер, поэтому это словосочетание попало на шестую строчку рейтинга. А вот toxic masculinity опережает «отношения» в целом — отравляющая, токсичная маскулинность заняла второе место по популярности. Это случилось во многом из-за движения #MeToo, которое помогло многим женщинам рассказать о неподобающем поведении мужчин по отношению к ним.

Кстати, словарь Merriam Webster в прошлом году признал «феминизм» словом года. А в этом году эксперты словаря Collins Dictionary назвали словом года прилагательное single-use — одноразовый. Тоже из-за экологических проблем.

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New Delhi: After a year of being swamped with infuriating and disturbing news, we finally have an official word to describe the experience of 2018.  The Oxford Dictionary has declared ‘Toxic’ as the official word of the year, reported the New York Post. 

The UK-based institution believes that ‘toxic’ best captures society’s collective experience in 2018. With words like “toxic masculinity” and “toxic relationships” finding their way into the modern lexicon, a lot can can be said of our contemporary ethos – but not nearly enough about the air we breathe.

Twitter users were quick to point out the adjective’s prolific usage in relation to the #MeToo movement and Donald Trump – perhaps underlining everything wrong with our world today.

Also read: Talking About #MeToo – a List of Definitions

Borrowed from late Latin toxicus – meaning ‘poisoned’ and from Ancient Greek toxikón phármakon – meaning ‘poison for use on arrows’  – the word “has added more strings to its poisoned bow during 2018, becoming an intoxicating descriptor for the year’s most talked about topics,” a spokesperson for the dictionary said.

Over time, ‘toxic’ has transitioned from addressing the somatic to the psychological. In addition to talking about the toxicity in its literal sense, the word is now often used as a metaphorical descriptor for contemporary politics, society, workplace environments and cultures.

This year was rife with watershed political developments and social movements sparking widespread international debates. The Brett Kavanaugh senate judiciary committee was just one of such developments. It is against the backdrop of such disturbing events that ‘toxic’ has well and truly taken root in the public consciousness.

Also read: ‘Hobson-Jobson’ – a Dictionary That Represents the Multiplicity of India

‘Toxic’ can be seen as the genealogical successor of last year’s title holder – Youthquake, which is defined as ‘a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people’. As political and social tumult scaled up after 2017, what was already an acerbic discourse – finally metastasised into a toxic one.

Interestingly and on a slightly lighter note, Britney Spears’ 2004 pop song ‘Toxic‘ played a large part in spreading the metaphorical use of the word.

Other words contending for the top spot this year included ‘gaslighting’, ‘incel’ and ‘techlash’.