Feminism trumped rodomontade in 2017

Feminism is a word that most English speakers know now, considering that it has been chosen by Merriam-Webster as the word of the year based on the huge rise in the number of online searches on it. Only a pedant would still imagine that it means "the qualities of females" - the definition it debuted with in 1841. Indeed, most would agree that feminism has come a long way from that initial assessment, but whether they quite comprehend that it is "the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes" and "organised activity on behalf of women's rights and interests" as the dictionary decrees now, is debatable. Harvey Weinstein and sundry other luminaries certainly did not have much of an idea for years.

But at least feminism is a word that everyone thinks they know the meaning of; that's more than can be said about some of the words that dominated English political discourse in India courtesy the articulate Congress MP from Kerala, Shashi Tharoor. Having begun the year with 'farrago', he has rounded it off with the even more obscure 'rodomontade' - a word that is, of course, especially applicable to many in public life. He can be credited with improving the vocabularies of his vast swathe of social media followers but if clarity is the key to successful communication, cliches may be the more effective tool.