If the word ‘gammon’ conjures images of a delicious Sunday lunch, you need to move with the times. Collins Dictionary has named ‘gammon’ as one of its words of the year for 2018, but defining it as “a term of abuse directed at the most reactionary pro-Brexit supporters”.

It is generally deployed to describe white men of a certain age who become pink in the face when working themselves into a rage about the European Union.

Although it has become more common since the Referendum, the term was used in 1838 by Charles Dickens to describe a pompous MP named Mr Gregsbury in Nicholas Nickleby.

“The meaning of that term - gammon - is unknown to me. If it means that I grow a little too fervid, or perhaps even hyperbolic, in extolling my native land, I admit the full justice of my remark,” the character says.

“I am proud of this free and happy country. My form dilates, my eye glistens, my breast heaves, my heart swells, my bosom burns, when I call to mind her greatness and her glory.”

Other words newly included in Collins’ online edition include ‘#MeToo’ and ‘gaslight’. ‘Single-use’, referring to the plastics littering our oceans, is also on the list - its impact was highlighted by the BBC’s Blue Planet II series.

Helen Newstead, Head of Language Content at Collins, said: “This has been a year where awareness and often anger over a variety of issues has led to the rise of new words and the revitalisation and adaptation of old ones.

“It’s clear from this year’s Words of the Year list that changes to our language are dictated as much by public concern as they are by sport, politics, and playground fads.”

One more lighthearted word on the list is ‘plogging’, a Swedish activity that combines litter-picking while running (it merges the words ‘jogging’ and ‘plocka’, Swedish for ‘to pick’).