‘gif’ and ‘omnishambles’ are words of the year in the U.S. and U.K.

Oxford University Press which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary has chosen “gif” as the word of the year for America. The British word of the year is “omnishambles.”

Other terms in the running were: “mommy porn,” “50 Shades” and “green-on-blue.”

More details:

From AP:

Britain’s media are in a meltdown and its government is gaffe-prone, so Oxford Dictionaries has chosen an apt Word of the Year: “omnishambles.”

Oxford University Press on Tuesday crowned the word — defined as “a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations” — its top term of 2012.

Each year Oxford University Press tracks how the English language is changing and chooses a word that best reflects the mood of the year. The publisher typically chooses separate British and American winners. This year’s American champion is “gif,” short for graphics interchange format, a common format for images on the Internet.

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