Culture | Johnson
And the word of 2022 is…
Johnson’s choice is neither clever nor lovely. But it is hugely consequential
THE STORY of a year is sometimes easy to identify: the financial crisis of 2008, the Brexit-Trump populist wave of 2016 or the pandemic of 2020. The most wrenching event of 2022 has been the war in Ukraine, yet those earlier stories have lingered in the headlines. For language-watchers, all that meant much new vocabulary to consider.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Halfway home”
More from Culture
Ovation inflation has spread from Broadway to London’s West End
Why do dud plays get standing ovations?
Are mystics kooks or valuable disrupters?
A realist’s refreshing take on mysticism
Sex and Snow White: how Grimm should children’s books be?
The German authors suggest very, but today trends run the opposite way
Jimmy Lai’s trial is a headline-worthy example of injustice
A new biography aims to keep the public’s attention on the pro-democracy tycoon
Millennials and Gen Z are falling hard for stuffed animals
Plushies are cute, cuddly and costly
Ten years after the Charlie Hebdo attack, satire is under siege
Public support is waning for the right to offend