One day, when Peter Capaldi is remembered only as the 12th Doctor in Doctor Who and not the foul-mouthed Malcolm Tucker who first spat out the word "omnishambles", a curious reader who comes upon it in the pages of a yellowing Kindle will be able to look it up in the dictionary and find that it meant "a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterised by a string of blunders and miscalculations".
The word, originally coined by the writers of the political satire The Thick of It, and adopted by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, to describe the caravan and pasty taxes and other political blunders and U-turns of the government's 2012 budget, has made it into the Oxford Dictionaries online.
Last year omnishambles was voted the word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary.
Some of the more vom-worthy (vom: v. & n. informal: (be) sick; vomit) creatures of the digital undergrowth have also made the new edition, including selfie (a photograph taken of oneself, typically with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website); unlike (v. withdraw one's liking or approval of a web page or posting on a social media website that one has previously liked); phablet (smartphone having a screen which is intermediate in size between that of a typical smartphone and a tablet computer); the dreaded "internet of things" (proposed development of the internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data); and the much needed "digital detox" (a period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world).
Appalling fashions and hairstyles include "double denim" (often regarded as a breach of fashion etiquette); self-explanatory "chandelier earrings"; flatforms (a flat shoe with a high, thick sole); and fauxhawks (a hairstyle in which a section of hair running from the front to the back of the head stands erect). This could well be caused by Fomo (fear of missing out: anxiety that an exciting or interesting event may currently be happening elsewhere, often aroused by posts seen on a social media website).
Blondies and cake-pops could well bring on a "food baby" (a protruding stomach caused by eating a large quantity of food and supposedly resembling that of a woman in the early stages of pregnancy); whereas the real thing should be marked by a babymoon (a relaxing or romantic holiday taken by parents-to-be before their baby is born; a period of time following the birth of a baby during which the new parents can focus on establishing a bond with their child).
This may be getting a bit TL:DR (too long, didn't read: used as a dismissive response to a lengthy online post, or to introduce a summary of a lengthy post). Apols.
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