Catholic Online Forum

"Omnishambles" has been named word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary.

The word - meaning a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle - was coined in 2009 by the writers of BBC political satire The Thick of It.

But it has crossed over into real life this year, said the judges.

Fiona McPherson, one of the lexicographers on the judging panel, said: "It was a word everyone liked, which seemed to sum up so many of the events over the last 366 days in a beautiful way.

"It's funny, it's quirky, and it has broken free of its fictional political beginnings, firstly by spilling over into real politics, and then into other contexts.

"If influence is any indication of staying power, it has already staked its claim by being linguistically productive in its own right, producing a number of related coinages.

When was the word "shambolic" coined?

I hadn't realised that "shambolic" was a "real" word either.

informal, chiefly British

Obamashambles.

But it also mutated on social media into humorous new variants such as "Romneyshambles" - used to describe gaffes by US presidential candidate Mitt Romney during his visit to the UK...