Dictionary deenergised by toxic debt of bankers’ language

AND now for something else to blame on the bankers. Having invaded the people’s pockets and marauded all over national morale, they’ve infiltrated the very language we speak.

“Toxic debt” — meaning gargantuan loans given by banks to reckless developers for hopelessly ill-advised investments that lack any chance of repayment — has made it into the Oxford Dictionary of English.

Oxford’s definition is somewhat more restrained than that but, given the circumstances, we can forgive a little “catastrophising” — another addition which means presenting a situation as considerably worse than it is.