Editor’s Column: The surreal post-truth year that was 2016

Every year in December the world’s leading lexicographers choose a “word of the year.” Their choice is based on criteria like how many times the word was referenced in the media, or how many times someone searched for its definition.
Sometimes the word of the year is a benign word that we’ve all picked up and started using, like “selfie,” which was the word of the year chosen by Oxford Dictionaries in 2013. Merriam-Webster’s word…