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“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:1-5)

The first chapter of John sums up how important words are to the Lord, so much so that ‘the Word was God.’

As Catholic writers, we, too, literally live and breathe the Word — and words — as we use our craft to do the Lord’s work.

One of the fun things at the end of every year are the lists of ‘words of the year.’ In case you missed the 2017 versions, the Oxford Dictionary Word of the Year was “youthquake.” It’s defined as “a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people.” On their shortlist are also antifa, broflake, gorcore, kompromat, newsjacking, milkshake duck, unicorn and white fragility.

The Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year is “feminism.” Their Top 10 Words of the Year lists include dotard, gaffe, syzygy, complicit, recuse, empathy, gyro, federalism and hurricane. They have a blog post explaining how each came to be included. (BTW, the Merriam-Webster Twitter feed is A+.)

What’s your favorite 2017 word? I’m leaning towards syzygy, since I got to see the total eclipse last summer.