Collins Word of the Year 2015: Binge-watch beats clean-eating, manspreading and dadbod
If you decided to binge on box-sets rather than food this year, you might have inadvertently helped determine the Collins Word of the Year.
Binge-watching has been named the word for 2015 after lexicographers saw a 200 per cent increase in its usage, which describes watching "a large number of television programmes (especially all the shows from one series) in succession."
Other contenders included "clean-eating" – when you avoid processed foods in favour of raw or unrefined produce – and "dadbod" – which is what you get when you do the former instead of the latter.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has also clearly had an impact – Corbynomics appeared in the top five words.
"Manspreading" – sitting on public transport with your legs akimbo – was also in the mix, as was "shaming", which is often linked to slurs made on social media about someone's body.
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Helen Newstead, head of language content at Collins, said: "The rise in usage of 'binge-watch' is clearly linked to the biggest sea change in our viewing habits since the advent of the video recorder nearly 40 years ago.
"Due to subscription services such as Netflix or Sky's Now TV, or 'smart' digital video recorders such as Tivo, fans can watch what they want, when they want, for as long as they want.
"It's not uncommon for viewers to binge-watch a whole season of programmes such as House Of Cards or Breaking Bad in just a couple of evenings – something that, in the past, would have taken months – then discuss their binge-watching on social media."