A rather grouchy Louis Menand, after dissing the various dictionaries’ choices and suggesting that, perhaps, the word of the year ought to be a hashtag (#), argues that his choice of the emblematic word of these times is apt precisely because so many words are being deliberately distorted: “‘Fake’ once meant ‘counterfeit’ or ‘inauthentic,’ like a fake Picasso or a fake birth certificate. It is now used to mean ‘I deny your reality.'”