WORD OF THE YEAR ?

Amongst the world of lexicography there have been a number of candidates for 2020`s word of the year.  For example, Collins` Dictionary went for `lockdown` but the Oxford University thought there were too many candidates to choose from, so they suggested a whole list of words that have become familiar to us this year - most of which appear in the picture above.

Got me thinking though, as to whether I might be able to identify just one word that has annoyed me this year by its misuse and I think that word has to be `incredible.`  My own slimline volume of Collins` Dictionary defines `incredible` as `hard to believe or imagine` but I have lost count of the number of times things, events, people have all been described as `incredible` when they might simply have been `very` - incredibly talented = (`very?`)

I suppose it depends on the context in which words become accepted as the norm.  In football, not just words but whole phrases become part of the lexicon - `a difficult place to go to,` `he`ll be disappointed with that,` `a game of two halves.` 

But I noticed that although religion seems to have an impenetrable language of its own, it has now adopted the device of saying one thing whilst meaning another.  For example, I read over the weekend that the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Extremely Reverend Justin Welby is going to take a three months sabbatical next year for ` reflection, prayer and spiritual renewal.`  Well, good for him.  I don`t begrudge him his time away from the stresses of his job, but why not just call it a holiday?

Incredible.