No word like ‘modilie’ in English language: Oxford dictionary tells Rahul Gandhi
Oxford Dictionary seemingly missed the satire and responded to Gandhi’s tweet about modilie, clarifying that there was no such word in any of its dictionaries
Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s latest satirical attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in which he targeted the latter with the newly coined English word ‘modilie’, seems to have backfired after Oxford Dictionary stepped in and officially debunked it.
Here’s how it all went down.
On Wednesday, the Congress president took to Twitter to educate his followers about the newly coined English word ‘modilie’ – an apparent amalgamation of the words ‘Modi’ and ‘Lie’ – to take a dig at PM Modi.
A screenshot of the word’s definition read – to constantly modify the truth; to lie incessantly and habitually; and to lie without respite.
The first time Gandhi shared the screenshot, the page and logo were near replicas of ‘Oxford Living Dictionary’, the website of the official dictionary published by Oxford University Press.
Needless to say, a search on Oxford’s official website did not show any result for the word ‘modilie’.
Minutes later, the parliamentarian deleted his earlier tweet and shared another screenshot with the same information, but with an edited logo. This time, the logo did not have any reference to Oxford, but the look and feel of the page remained the same.
“There’s a new word in the English Dictionary. Attached is a snapshot of the entry :)”, the tweet read.
With over 9,000 re-tweets and 30,000 likes, it didn’t take time for the tweet to go viral and the word modilie to start trending on Twitter.
While those who paid close attention to the tweet might have guessed that the screenshot was a thinly veiled and sarcastic jibe by Congress’ IT cell, others who took it on face value were seemingly left under the impression that Modi’s lying had become enough of a ‘thing’ to warrant the addition of a new word in the English language.
The party kept the momentum going earlier today when Gandhi shared another tweet that read, “‘Modilie’ is a new word that’s become popular worldwide. Now there’s even a website that catalogues the best Modilies!”
The satirical meme was working in Congress’ favour till Thursday evening when the actual Oxford Dictionary took notice of the photoshopped screenshot of its website and set the record straight.
“We can confirm that the image showing the entry ‘Modilie’ is fake and does not exist in any of our Oxford Dictionaries,” it tweeted to Gandhi from its official handle.
We can confirm that the image showing the entry ‘Modilie’ is fake and does not exist in any of our Oxford Dictionaries.
— Oxford Dictionaries (@OxfordWords) May 16, 2019
As of publishing this report, the tweet has garnered both positive and negative responses from netizens, with some pointing out that the screenshot was nothing more than political satire and others taking a dig at Gandhi for peddling lies in the garb of information.
