It’s funny how quickly the English language adopts new words and phrases that were on nobody’s tongues last year. A good example of this phenomenon is the phrase “Climate strike”, which was featured on plenty of news headlines this year and rapidly became something we hear on a daily basis.
In fact, the word’s usage has increased 100 times in 2019 since its first reported appearance in 2015. For that reason, the Collins Dictionary has chosen the word “Climate strike” as its word of the year and has decided to make it an entry in its latest edition of the dictionary.
According to Collins, “Climate strike” can be defined as “a form of protest in which people absent themselves from education or work in order to join demonstrations demanding action to counter climate change”. This isn’t the first time a climate-related word made it to the top of the Collins’ word ranking. Last year, “single-use” held the top ranking.
While you might find it insignificant that a climate-related word or phrase received a high ranking in a dictionary, consider this: if these words are rapidly getting adopted in the vocabulary of the people, then it tells us that addressing the climate crisis is no longer a fringe topic, but rather a common point of discussion.
