Phrase which encourages victims of sexual harassment to share their stories beats ‘big dick energy’, ‘single-use’ and ‘deepfake’ to top honour

“Big dick energy”, “single-use” and “deepfake” have missed out on being named 2018’s word of the year, with Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary landing on “Me Too” for its annual honour.

The phrase, first coined by American social activist Tarana Burke in the mid-2000s, went viral in 2017 following a tweet by actor Alyssa Milano, who – in the wake of allegations against Harvey Weinstein – encouraged victims of sexual harassment or assault to share their stories in order to show the breadth of the problem.

The phrase has been added to the dictionary, where it is defined as an adjective “of or relating to the Me Too movement … [or] an accusation of sexual harassment or sexual assault”; and as a verb, which means “to accuse (someone) of having committed sexual harassment or sexual assault” – as in, “to be Me Tooed”.

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The Macquarie Dictionary word of the year is decided on by a committee which includes journalists, writers and academics. In a statement they said the phrase had “definitely maintained its momentum” since the movement took off in 2017.

“In 2018 it started to spread its linguistic wings beyond the hashtag and the name of the movement, answering an obvious need in the discourse surrounding this social upheaval,” they continued. “So, the fact that ‘Me Too’ is now being used as a verb and an adjective, combined with the undeniable significance of the movement, made the committee’s choice … a fairly straightforward decision.”

But the selection for an Australian dictionary does come with a hint of irony: while there have been many high-profile cases of men being “Me Tooed” overseas – ranging from Hollywood figures such as Weinstein and Louis CK, to politicians such as Al Franken and Roy Moore, to business executives, journalists and authors – in Australia the movement, at least as it’s played out in the media, has been relatively small. Many have blamed Australia’s defamation laws, which have been described as “the most hostile in the world”.

Geoffrey Rush is claiming millions of dollars in damages, suing the Daily Telegraph over a story it published in 2017 alleging inappropriate behaviour, which Rush denies.

Rush has since been subject of a second series of allegations from Australian actor Yael Stone, which he denies.

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In its word of the year announcement, the Macquarie Dictionary also gave honourable mentions to three other terms which have been popularised over the last 12 months.

“BDE” or “big dick energy”, which appeared to have been coined by Twitter user @imbobswaget to describe food writer Anthony Bordain and was subsequently applied to Saturday Night Live comic Pete Davidson. The dictionary describes it as “a sense of self-confidence, unaccompanied by arrogance or conceit [from the supposed self-assuredness possessed by a man with a large penis]”.

Tina⚔️ (@babyvietcong) Pete davidson is 6’3 with dark circles, exudes big dick energy, looks evil but apparently is an angel, and loves his girl publicly the only thing wrong w him is that he’s a scorpio but anyway.....id married him within a month too

The dictionary also gave honourable mentions to “single-use” as in “single-use plastic bag; single-use cup” and “deepfake” – “a video of a computer generated likeness of an individual, created using deep learning without the individual’s knowledge, often for the purpose of misinformation, vindictiveness or satire”.

Last year’s Macquarie Dictionary word of the year was “milkshake duck”, another web-coined phrased which perplexed many but delighted some.