KEY POINTS

  • The word saw off competition from broflake, kompromat and antifa.
  • Social media users admit they have never heard the obscure term before.

Oxford English Dictionaries has announced its word of the year for 2017 – but the selection has not been popular with users on social media.

Youthquake – meaning "significant cultural, political or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people" — was chosen following a four-fold increase in usage over the past 12 months.

The word beat a number of other neologisms which made up this year's shortlist. They include:

- Antifa, a growing left-wing and anti-fascist movement from the United States.

- Kompromat, a Soviet-era word for damaging information about a politician or businessman.

- Broflake, a derogatory term for a conservative man offended by liberal ideas or principals.

Most curious of all was Milkshake duck, a word used to describe "a person or thing that initially inspires delight on social media but is soon revealed to have a distasteful or repugnant past."

Oxford Dictionaries' Casper Grathwohl admitted their eventual selection was "not an obvious choice" for the award.

"In the UK, where it rose to prominence as a descriptor of the impact of the country's young people on its general election, calls it out as a word on the move," he said.

The internet has reacted with surprise to the announcement, with many admitting they had never heard of the word before.

One person pointed out that its usage has been declining over the past decade if Google is to believed

Some think Oxford English Dictionaries might be trying too hard to be down with the cool kids.

The word's first recorded use was in 1966 by then Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, who used it to describe the explosion of fashion and music in London during the Swinging Sixties.

If you think you've seen the the word somewhere before, you are not alone. Iconic Eighties group Dead or Alive used it on a 1985 album with the same title.

Youthquake will now join 2017's other words of the year: Merriam-Webster chose 'feminism' while Dictionary.com opted for 'populism'.

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