The 2016 word of the year was just released, we’re going to cry

Although it almost seems too soon to be releasing Year in Review stuff, 2017 is approaching. And with the impending new year comes Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2016. Now, if you didn’t like 2015’s Word of the Year (the “Face with Tears of Joy” emoji) because it wasn’t a real word — well, buckle up, because this year’s word is a depressing doozy.

Drum roll please because the politically-packed Word of the Year for 2016 is the adjective “post-truth.”

The official definition of “post-truth” from Oxford Dictionaries is:

"Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief"

Oh no — that is not good.

Oxford Dictionaries says “post-truth” appears to have been first used (based on its current definition) in 1992. However, the word saw a huge spike in 2016 due to two major political events — the UK’s Brexit vote to leave the European Union and the U.S.’s presidential election, which led to Donald Trump becoming the next president.

The reason we’re so sad about this year’s word is because this type of post-truth politics has been regarded as the reason for both Brexit and Trump — two things that will most likely go on to define 2016, but that we aren’t necessarily proud of. Because shouldn’t we value truth over emotions when it comes to politics? We thought objective > subjective when it came to world affairs.

While the relatable word “adulting,” which made the shortlist for Word of the Year, would have been a much more lighthearted choice, Oxford Dictionaries takes its yearly decision seriously.

And you can check out the reasoning behind the choice in the below video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xcW7Tg5E34?feature=oembed

Although we don’t necessarily approve of the viewpoint that the Word of the Year conveys, we can’t deny that post-truth does seem to define 2016 in many ways.

Ah, the emoji isn’t looking so bad now, is it?