Home > Terms > English (EN) > omnishambles

omnishambles

Omnishambles is a neulogism that was first coined in 2009 by the writers of BBC political satire The Thick of It and has since entered public use. It is an amalgamation of the Latin prefix omni-, meaning all, and shambles, which means total chaos. The word refers to a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle.

Its first recorded use was in the UK House of Commons by Labour party leader Ed Miliband in April 2012. The word then took off as a term of criticism by opposition parties attacking the government, whilst being mutated on social media into humourous variants such as 'Romneyshambles'. The word was named the Oxford English Dictionary's 2012 Word of the Year.

0
  • Part of Speech: noun
  • Synonym(s):
  • Blossary:
  • Industry/Domain: Language
  • Category: Slang
  • Company:
  • Product:
  • Acronym-Abbreviation:
Collect to Blossary

Member comments

You have to log in to post to discussions.

Terms in the News

Billy Morgan

Sports; Snowboarding

The British snowboarder Billy Morgan has landed the sport’s first ever 1800 quadruple cork. The rider, who represented Great Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was in Livigno, Italy, when he achieved the man-oeuvre. It involves flipping four times, while body also spins with five complete rotations on a sideways or downward-facing axis. The trick ...

Marzieh Afkham

Broadcasting & receiving; News

Marzieh Afkham, who is the country’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, will head a mission in east Asia, the state news agency reported. It is not clear to which country she will be posted as her appointment has yet to be announced officially. Afkham will only be the second female ambassador Iran has had. Under the last shah’s rule, Mehrangiz Dolatshahi, a ...

Weekly Packet

Language; Online services; Slang; Internet

Weekly Packet or "Paquete Semanal" as it is known in Cuba is a term used by Cubans to describe the information that is gathered from the internet outside of Cuba and saved onto hard drives to be transported into Cuba itself. Weekly Packets are then sold to Cuban's without internet access, allowing them to obtain information just days - and sometimes hours - after it ...

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Banking; Investment banking

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution established to address the need in Asia for infrastructure development. According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia needs $800 billion each year for roads, ports, power plants or other infrastructure projects before 2020. Originally proposed by China in 2013, a signing ...

Spartan

Online services; Internet

Spartan is the codename given to the new Microsoft Windows 10 browser that will replace Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. The new browser will be built from the ground up and disregard any code from the IE platform. It has a new rendering engine that is built to be compatible with how the web is written today. The name Spartan is named after the ...

Featured Terms

vhanedelgado
  • 0

    Terms

  • 15

    Blossaries

  • 7

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Beverages Category: Distilled liquor

Ron Diplomático Reserva

This rum has a rich and full, with golden syrup, Demerara and a hint of treacle. This 8 years old rum, product of the Batch distillation process, has ...

Featured blossaries

Historical African Weaponry

Category: Sports   1 5 Terms

Poptropica

Category: Entertainment   2 10 Terms