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'Complicit' Is The Word Of The Year In 2017, Dictionary.com Says (npr.org)

Posted by msmash on from the word dept.

Dictionary.com has selected "complicit" as its word of the year for 2017, citing the term's renewed relevance in U.S. culture and politics -- and noting that a refusal to be complicit has also been "a grounding force of 2017." From a report: The website defines "complicit" as "choosing to be involved in an illegal or questionable act, especially with others; having complicity." Interest in the word spiked several times this year, Dictionary.com says -- most notably when Ivanka Trump said in April, "I don't know what it means to be complicit."

28 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Why the fuck is this on Slashdot's front page?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Why the fuck is this submission on the front page of Slashdot?!

    This submission has nothing to do with technology, science, math, computing, science fiction, programming, or anything even remotely relevant.

    This is shit-tier news that would even be considered pretty irrelevant by most mainstream sites.

    Even as a purely political submission this one is total shit.

    Whipslash, if you still even visit this site, can you please do something about msmash? Msmash has repeatedly put some of the most idiotic, irrelevant submissions up on the front page. Please relieve msmash of its editorial duties here.

    1. Re:Why the fuck is this on Slashdot's front page?! by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Collusion;

      The only word the media seems to know this year.

      You keep using that word...

      I don't think that word means what you think it means...

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Why the fuck is this on Slashdot's front page?! by sheramil · · Score: 1

      You Click, They $$

      That's the thing. Articles like this, you don't need to click.

      Anyway, I thought "egregious" was the word of the year. Seems everyone's using it as a replacement for "very".

    3. Re:Why the fuck is this on Slashdot's front page?! by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      That would be gratuitous.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  2. It should have been dotard by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    It should have been dotard

  3. here's hoping next year's word is.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    impeachment

    1. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      President Pence?! No thanks! Best thing to do is leave things as they are and just vote out all the incumbents from the house and as many as you can in the senate. Replace all democrats and republicans with independents. Then, if you get a good speaker, impeach both Trump AND Pence! And drag all their complicit supporters into criminal court!

      And don't forget kids, with reelection rates as high as they are, the voters are complicit in everything the government does.

    2. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      better than our snowflake in Chief. cries on twitter anytime someone doesn't like him..

      boo hoo. fat president can't take the heat!

    3. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...says the idiots who spent eight years bitching about results they didn't like.

    4. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Of who?

      Remember, an impeachment trail requires a majority vote in the house to start it but also requires 2/3rds of the Senate to convict. If you are thinking Trump will be impeached and convicted, you are as crazy as he is. Republicans understand this would be suicide, well, at least enough of them understand this that we'd never get a conviction.

      Then I ask the obvious question.. If you won't succeed in getting Trump out of office, what's the point of taking this huge risk? Last time impeachment happened, it didn't go so well for the party driving the train after the conviction failed in the Senate.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    5. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by Jzanu · · Score: 1

      The long-standing character of the US is at stake, and this is more important than political bickering. As a remote observer Trump has turned the US into Russia of the 90s, and that is not a good thing! The US is the bastion of freedom, or at least it should be. You have monuments to that!

      Now, bobblied, you personally may be a Russian troll brigade member or simply a useful idiot furthering their objectives without consideration of the long-term outcomes. In that case, I'm sorry, I don't care about you or what you say, and neither does anyone else now that the larger scheme has been exposed. I have known this from Germany since 2001, but English media is only exposed recently. /P

    6. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by bobbied · · Score: 2

      Oh please... Now I'm a Russian because I point out that impeaching Trump might not be a good idea? That's rich...

      Could it be that because you cannot admit that your candidate lost a fair and square election to an absolute novice that you are grasping at straws? Seriously, Hillary was an awful candidate and ran a horrible campaign. This election was her's to lose, and she lost it to a candidate that had nearly a zero chance of winning.

      In order to impeach trump, you guys need to take the house in 2018... I don't see that happening, but let's say it does for argument sake. In that case Impeachment of Trump may happen, but Conviction won't, there is zero chance you will get 2/3rds even if you won EVERY Senate seat in the midterms. You need to square with that reality and figure out how you are going to deal with it because the last party that impeached a sitting president and failed paid dearly for the attempt.

      But... By all means, do try. It will be a bloodbath at the ballot box for your side...

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    7. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by WrongMonkey · · Score: 2

      As a remote observer Trump has turned the US into Russia of the 90

      Right. These breadlines and salary delays are getting to be a real pain.

    8. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by craXORjack · · Score: 1

      That you made this political is not surprising in the least. After all, it was clearly a political statement.

      But this political statement was made by some no-name at a dictionary web site, someone who has even less authoritas to spew their political opinion than the typical musical star or television actor.

      --
      Liberals call everyone Nazis yet they are the closest thing to it.
    9. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      There are only two paths for Americans: impeach Trump or accept diminished stature on the world stage, in addition to the damage he plans to perpetrate on the homeland.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    10. Re: here's hoping next year's word is.. by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      "you guys", "your side", etc etc...

      Notice who is the one that needs to get all defensive when "their man" is threatened. The person you are replying to didn't even mention Hillary, and there is nothing in the post to suggest that he voted for or otherwise supported her. Not that it would make a damn bit of difference to his actual argument. You see, some people just like to be partisan cheerleaders, hoping that the star quarterback for Their Team steals the show. And some people actually devote deep, independent, often painful thought to what our government should be doing to effectively run the nation. Guess which end of the spectrum you fall on.

    11. Re: here's hoping next year's word is.. by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      I'm starting to see a common thread of fearmongering about Pence becoming president, and it's really starting to look like an idea that's being ah... Artificially disseminated. Nobody wants to see Pence as president, and the calculation is that we have now become so weary to Trumpism that we will just accept it as the new normal. Painting Trump as the devil we know and Pence as the devil we don't.

      Well, we know both of them. We know how specially and uniquely rotten Trump is, and we know how averagely, status-quo rotten Pence is. In the choice of the lesser of two evils, it's clear who is the lesser and more easily contained. And it's clear that action must be taken. Do not become complacent. Do not accept the death of our nation and all its values. Do not give up on impeachment.

    12. Re: here's hoping next year's word is.. by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Trump is worse but he's far less competent. And his awfulness leads to lots of infighting and paralysis in the GOP. Put Pence in, and the GOP will get a lot more policies passed that screw the country (the part that's not rich at least). That's going to kill the nation a lot faster. I'm not willing to trade looking better for being worse.

    13. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by bobbied · · Score: 1

      In case you haven't noticed.. Roy Moore was cut adrift by the RNC and has been cut loose by nearly everyone in the republican party, nobody is with him now. How's that square with how you represent this issue? Also, One simply cannot deny that this issue with Moore and teenage girls is conveniently timed for his political opponent. Even if Moore did all this, the release was timed for political reasons and that should raise suspicions by all. But we really have no proof of any of these stories either way, and at this point, 37 years later, there will be no proof for any of this, either way. My guess is that Moore will win, unless some idiot tries to mount a write in campaign in the next 12 days or so, which seems unlikely.

      About the impeachment idea.. By all means, try. PLEASE try. Sans any real crime and serious by Trump himself being uncovered, The effort WILL fail and will accrue to the detriment of those who push it. Oh? You think Trump DID commit a crime then? What crime, exactly?

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    14. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by fafalone · · Score: 1
      Trump is with him. So are a few Senators. That most aren't fits with my point, that many Republicans are reconsidering the whole party before country thing that underlies their support for Trump. You're being a bit disingenuous with the comment on timing; it's not that people suddenly came forward on their own, he was for the first time subjected to high scrutiny from national news outlets and the initial complaints were discovered only by reporters going to ask about his history. Local news for state elections just isn't looking that hard.
      As for what crimes Trump committed, we can start with treason and obstruction of justice and go from there. He fired the director of the FBI for looking into whether he directly colluded with a hostile foreign government to effect the election, and admitted as much on national television*. So both those charges are clear even if there actually was no collusion with Trump himself, though believing that when there clearly was with his son and a bunch of high level campaign staff is just not realistic. (And for what it's worth, I think Clinton committed a crime too and they should be sharing the same cell, I have no love for her either, people seem to forget that some of us are principled enough to call out wrongs on their own side).

      * -

      "But regardless of [the] recommendation, I was going to fire Comey. Knowing there was no good time to do it!
      And in fact when I decided to just do it I said to myself, I said, 'You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should've won."

    15. Re:here's hoping next year's word is.. by bobbied · · Score: 2

      Oh? Trump is "with him"? Not really. Trump won't be in Alabama campaigning for Moore or sending him money..

      What Trump is saying is exactly what I'm saying. Moore is a better choice than the democrat. Obviously Moore isn't currently engaged in molesting children now, nor has he been accused of this in the last 37 years. I don't know if he did it or not but he's not doing this now and there ARE valid doubts that the stories being told are the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Given the obvious political motives behind these stories and the timing of their release there ARE doubts here.

      I would strongly suggest you be careful here. Roy Moore's troubles are the kind that often backfire on the left. We've had decades of popular democrats which engaged in well documented and known egregious behavior of this sort and we've all looked the other way. Roy Moore's behavior 37 years ago, even if true, was pretty tame compared to some of the things we CAN prove happened on the left. Tread lightly sir.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  4. Re:Dictionary.com owner IAC, Chelsea Clinton on bo by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    I've noticed they've been hinting at political jabs all year long, and it's been really annoying. Time to unsubscribe from their word of the day I guess. There are alternatives.

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  5. Just one question by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    Do they have a picture of Ivanka Trump to illustrate the dictionary definition of "complicit"?

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  6. Linguistics is Geeky by Jzanu · · Score: 1

    Linguistics is very geeky, and fascinating for its relationships to everything from statistics to communications which is what justifies IT itself. Get your head out of your ass!

    1. Re:Linguistics is Geeky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This submission has about as much to do with "linguistics" as creating a grocery shopping list has to do with programming. That's to say, pretty much nothing at all.

      Yes, linguistics would be an interesting topic to discuss here. But this submission sure as fuck isn't about linguistics, and only a fucking idiot would think that it is.

  7. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  8. Re:Dictionary.com owner IAC, Chelsea Clinton on bo by ruddk · · Score: 1

    It would be nice to find a refuge from politics somewhere, but it is damn near impossible.

    --
    L'Idiot
  9. Re:Dictionary.com owner IAC, Chelsea Clinton on bo by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

    Nothing better to do?

    --

    Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.