From A to Z: The worst words of 2012

Gaffe. Noun with political inclinations. From the Wire’s Elspeth Reeve, gaffe is veering off a semantic cliff: “The definition of a gaffe has been broadened to any time a politician says something you can put in an headline and then write jokes about. A gaffe is a guaranteed two-post story — one on the original comment, and one on the follow-up comment explaining the comment. Reporters’ excessive reliance on gaffes to make it through a slow news day was most apparent when a Washington Post reporter was caught on tape yelling across a parking lot to Mitt Romney, “WHAT ABOUT YOUR GAFFES?”

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