I have been collecting new and controversial language generated by the rise of conservative populism in the US and the UK, by pro- and anti-Trump sentiment in the US and by the divisions resulting from the UK’s Brexit vote. This is a work in progress: the preliminary list of terms as it stands is below. Soon I plan to offer detailed definitions and comments (for example, the first word in the list is my own invention, intended to describe a statement, act or policy showing effrontery, and itself a deliberate affront to a section of the population) and a ‘lexical’ categorisation (into ‘jargon’, ‘slang, ‘catchphrase’, cliché, for instance).
**Please do contact me with new examples, with comments and with criticism, which will be gratefully acknowledged and credited.**
Affrontery
Airfix patriotism
Alpha
Alt-centre
Alt-right
Annexationist
Antifa
Anywheres
Astroturfing
Attitudinarian
Autohagiography
Backstop
Bad actors
Based
Beta
Birtherism
Bitterites
Black ops
Blowback
Bot
Both-sidesism
Breadcrumbs
Brectum
Bregressive
Bregret(s)
Bremain
Brengland
Brexiles
Brexit dividend
Brexiteer
Brexit means Brexit
Brexmageddon
Brexodus
Brextension
BRINO
Butthurt
Cakeism
Calling out
Cancel culture
Centrist dad
Cherry-picking
Civics
Civility
Classist
Cosmopolitan
Corbynista
Corporatocracy
Crash out
Crybaby
Cuck
Cultural marxist
Dead cat strategy
Deepfake
Deep state
Delegitimizer
Deplorables
DEXEU
Disaster capitalism
Disinformation
Divorce bill
Dogpile
Dog-whistle
Double down
Drain the swamp
DREAMer
Elite
Empty chair
Enablers
Ergo decedo
Establishment
Ethnics
Ethnonationalist
Ethno-state
Fake news
Fall off a cliff
False flag operation
Fashy
Feminazi
Finger-sniffer
Flextension
Fractionate
FUD
Gammon
Gammonista
Globalist
Guardianista
Hard Brexit
Hate goblin
Hatriot
High-vis nazis
Hobbit
Homonationalism
Hose it down
Identitarian
Incel
Indicative vote
Individual-1
Jambon jaunes
Jexodus
Kicking the can down the road
King baby
Kipper
Kompromat
Leave means leave
Lentil-weaving
Lexit
Libertarian
Libtard
Limp-wristed
Little Englander
Londonistan
Low-energy
MAGA
Magic Grandpa
Magic money tree
Majoritarian
Mangina
Manosphere
Masculinist
Matrixed
Maybot
Meaningful vote
Melt
Meninist
Metropolitan
Microaggression
Milkshake(d)
MSM
Nanny state
Nativist
Neglexit
Neon nazis
Neutrollization
No-deal
No-platforming
Normie
Optics
Palaeoconservative
Pearl-clutching
People’s vote
Pile on
Political correctness
Postmodern
Post-truth
Project Fear
Put/stick that on the side of a bus
QAnon
Quitlings
Rabble
Red lines
Red pill
Regrexit
Remainiacs
Remain plus
Remoanathon
Remoaner
Roll back
Rootless
Row back
Sadopopulism
Shadow blocking
Shire
Singapore-on-Thames
SJW social justice warrior
Skunked term
Snowflake
Soft border
Soft Brexit
Somewheres
Sovereignty
Soy-boy
Spartan phalanx
Sunlit uplands
Taking back control
Targeted individual
Tender-age shelter
Terf
Terminability
Throw under the bus
Tick tock
Tigger
Tofu-eating
Trexit
Tribal(ism)
Troll farm/factory
Truth-squadding
Tu quoque
Unicorns
Unspin
Urban
Values voter
Vassal state
Village idiot
Virtue-signalling
Walk back
Weaponised
Whataboutery
White supremacist
Will of the people
Woke-washing
Yoghurt-knitting
I’m grateful especially to the many contacts on Twitter who have already contributed to this modest project, and will credit them by name/handle when a final version is posted or published.
In February 2017 The New European published its own very useful lexicon, from which I have drawn, gratefully but without permission :
And the BBC listed many of the technical – and some less technical – terms associated with Brexit earlier this year:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43470987
Last year Karl McDonald discussed the language used by Labour party leftists in the i newspaper:
https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/slugs-melts-inside-language-culture-corbynite-left/
And here’s Helen Lewis in the New Statesman on incivility in the UK:
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/08/how-britain-political-conversation-turned-toxic
And Philip Seargeant on ‘fake news’:
https://infolit.org.uk/the-role-of-information-literacy-in-the-fight-against-fake-news/
In November 2018 The Guardian published a useful ‘jargon-buster’ guide to the terms being used at this late stage of (or impasse in, if you prefer) UK-EU negotiations:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/19/brexit-phrasebook-a-guide-to-the-talks-key-terms
Here Renee DiResta describes the ongoing ‘Information War(s)’ of which the manipulation of language is one component:
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/11/28/the-digital-maginot-line/
I have only just come across this perceptive essay from 2017, by Otto English on his Pinprick blog, in which he coins the terms Ladybird libertarian and Ronseal academic:
In January 2019 James Tapper contributed this very perceptive assessment of Brexit metaphors:
https://daily.jstor.org/many-metaphors-brexit/
And in March, more from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20190314-how-brexit-changed-the-english-language
In July 2019 the FT ran an interesting review of Boris Johnson’s press articles as precursors of ‘fake news’:
https://www.ft.com/content/ad141e8a-976d-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36
*’Skunked terms’ are words or expressions undergoing a controversial change in meaning. Examples are ‘liberal’ and ‘libertarian’ which have transitioned from referring to leftist, progressive or centrist positions to denote neo-conservative or alt-right affiliations.
