“I thought that ‘alternative facts’ wrapped up Euphemism of the Year,” says Mark Peters, who follows the vote closely and writes a column on euphemisms called Evasive Maneuvers. “But this one may be even better, in a worse way.”

“Alternative facts” – the already immortal phrase that Trump aide Kellyanne Conway used to describe falsehoods perpetuated by Trump’s press secretary – was euphemistic to the point that it may offend some people to call it a euphemism at all. Other language used by press secretary Sean Spicer on Tuesday, when he apparently referred to Nazi concentration camps as “Holocaust centers,” falls onto the same end of the spectrum. (Linguist Ben Zimmer, who presides over the event, notes that such items might find themselves in the running for an even more dubious honor known as “WTF Word of the Year.”)

While the vote is by no means sewn up, reaccommodate found serious resonance online, as did a statement in which “reaccommodated” passengers like the man who was hauled out of his seat were described as “volunteers.” Merriam-Webster, which monitors spikes in the words people are looking up, noted that lookups for volunteer spiked about 1900% following the incident. But lookups for the more rarely encountered reaccommodate spiked by 80,000%.”

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