Russian election influence, the ever-widening sexual harassment scandal, mass shootings and the opioid epidemic helped elevate the word “complicit” as Dictionary.com’s word of the year for 2017.
Look-ups of the word increased nearly 300 percent over last year as “complicit” hit just about every hot button from politics to natural disasters, lexicographer Jane Solomon told The Associated Press ahead of yesterday’s formal announcement of the site’s pick.
“This year a conversation that keeps on surfacing is what exactly it means to be complicit,” she said.
“Complicit has sprung up in conversations about those who speak out against powerful figures in institutions, and those who stay silent.”
The site chooses its word of the year by heading straight for data first, scouring look-ups by day, month and year to date and how they correspond to noteworthy events. This year, a lot of high-volume trends unsurprisingly corresponded to politics.
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