The American Dialect Society held its annual “Word of the Year” vote for 2016.
The winner was dumpster fire: an exceedingly disastrous or chaotic situation. (e.g. US election)
In third and fourth place were normalize (what was once unacceptable) and post-truth. But sitting at number two?
Woke
Yep, it is in part a reference to enlightened. It also made the slang word of the year list. Of course, it’s use is casual and generalized but it’s fascinating to see words like this migrate into common use.
My, we live in interesting times.
Davidya
Worth noting that “normalize” has also been used for purification or unstressing.