It's a tabloid word but it's chosen primarly for being short.

See also the the old Variety headline about rural movie-goers avoiding films set in rural communities: 'Hicks Nix Sticks Flicks'

It's a throwback to when subs had to get punchy compact headlines on paper and didn't have to worry about SEO

"Book Lack in Ongar" is my favourite.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/jan/26/books.guardian...

May favourite was the one that never got used. For years sub-editors hoped that former Labour leader Michael Foot would be put in charge of the organisation overseeing the decommissioning of weapons in Northern Ireland.

... just so thy could write:

Foot Heads Arms Body

Sadly, it never came to pass.

Seems like it's primarily used for weather events, e.g. Hurricane X slams into Florida.

It's also pretty widely used in politics coverage across many news sites. I did a quick search of WaPo, NYT, BBC, etc. and they all had a few headlines that used it like this.

I've heard teenagers use it when gossiping. Though that's been a while now.