From ‘on fleek’ to ‘Netflix and chill’ – the essential words and phrases of 2015

Do you know your champing from your boots on the ground? Our handy guide ensures your vocabulary doesn't date you

Kayla Newman coined 'On Fleek' as a term of approval

1. Straight talking, honest politics

Jeremy Corbyn certainly changed the tone of politics after his election as Labour leader on 12 September. Prime Minister’s Questions was less of a yah-boo brawl for a while, although it was already lapsing by the end of the term. Some of the new leader’s supporters let the side down on social media, prompting one Blairite to point out that there were two ways of pronouncing “kinder politics”.

2. Emoji

Oxford Dictionaries’ choice of word of the year in November. Technically the word of the year was a specific emoji, the one called “Face with Tears of Joy”, which is a 12-year-old’s way of saying rofl or lmao. The whole sorry publicity stunt proves only that the whole emoji thing is totes over.

3. Champing

Camping in churches. Invented by the Churches Conservation Trust this year. Another name urgently required.

'Virtue signalling' is often used by Labour right-wingers to describe the behaviour of Corbynites (Getty)

4. Netflix and chill

Yes, well, I had no idea.

5. Virtue signalling

A new way of accusing someone of being sanctimonious or smug is to say that they are advertising their ethical superiority. Often used by Labour right-wingers to suggest that Corbynites are more interested in “not in my name” posturing than in winning elections so that they could actually help poor people in government.

6. Brexit

Dates from 2012, when it was first written as Brixit, I went through the usual stages of denial, anger and so on. I assumed it would die out, but it was still around last year, so I put it on the Banned List. But this year it was added to the Oxford Dictionary. Can acceptance be far away?

7. On fleek

Invented as a term of approval by Peaches Monroee, a Vine pseudonym of Kayla Newman from Chicago, last year. Online use peaked in January 2015 and it hasn’t gone away since.

8. Boots on the ground

Another phrase that we hoped not to hear again made an unwelcome comeback this year. In vogue in 1999 (Kosovo, when the mere threat of them was enough to secure Slobodan Milosevic’s retreat), 2003 (Iraq, when we re-discovered why we had been so reluctant) and 2011 (Libya, when we thought we could do it from the air), and now back as something we are definitely not going to do (again) in Iraq, Syria or Afghanistan.

'Boots on the ground' has made an unwelcome comeback this year (Alamy)

9. Warhead to forehead

Latest unacceptable version of “pinpoint accuracy” (bombing campaigns from Vietnam onwards) for so-called precision drones. Urgent ban now decreed as a pre-emptive strike in case of traction.

10. Drinkery

Eatery is already on the Banned List, but this new horror is upon us. A seasonal warning notice has duly been issued.

'Drinkery' is a new horror upon us

11. Concerning

To mean “worrying”. This has been a low-level irritant for years, but seems to have started to spread alarmingly this year.

12. Northern Powerhouse

Grudgingly, we must accept that Neil O’Brien, George Osborne’s policy adviser, has come up with a corker of a political slogan. But resist it we must.