It began with “chav” and has actually consisted of “carbon footprint”, “omnishambles” and “selfie”. The Oxford word of the year project commemorates 20 years of picking the word– or often 2 words– that in some method summarize the minute. This year’s winner, chosen by public vote, will be revealed on Monday.
All 6 competitors on the shortlist have something in typical– the web. The words either describe stress and anxieties about online phenomena or behaviour (“slop”, indicating AI-generated material, and “brain rot” triggered by taking in excessive “slop” and other product); or they have actually been repurposed or popularised by social networks (old-fashioned words such as “demure” and “tradition”, and “romantasy”– a mix of love and dream precious by BookTokkers). Even “vibrant prices” associates with Ticketmaster’s escalating expenses of Oasis reunion tickets for fans in virtual lines.
The list ignores how eventful the year remained in reality (IRL), with UK and United States elections supplying lots of competitors consisting of “feline woman”, “supermajority” and “odd”, even if “Maga” and “Trumpism” feel a bit old. Oxford University Press (OUP) has actually typically shown international occasions: “post-truth” followed Donald Trump’s 2016 win, “environment emergency situation” was picked in 2019, and the turmoils in 2020 caused a report called Words of an Unprecedented Year. “Vax” took the spotlight in 2021.
From Shakespeare to JK Rowling, authors have actually been providing brand-new words for centuries. It is not a surprise that the web is taking control of: brand-new innovation needs brand-new words and brand-new methods of discussing how we engage with it. The innovation of the telephone is typically credited with the use of “hi” and “hi”. The words of the last 20 years that have actually fared finest are nouns such as “podcast” (a substance of iPod and “broadcast”) and “selfie”, instead of those explaining social patterns such as “chav” or “squeezed middle”, which now appear dated at finest. Brat summer season– the Collins Dictionary chose “brat”– currently feels a very long time earlier.
The 2022 winner “goblin mode” (“unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy”) caused allegations that Oxford Dictionaries had actually “worn a back-to‑front baseball hat and skateboarded throughout the news”– a little unjust considered that it was selected by a public vote. Slang is frequently the trigger for lexical development.
Is the word of the year more than a PR stunt or “neeky” (do maintain) parlour video game? While the wordsmiths at OUP attempt to look beyond the grim news cycle, the lexical photos of the last 20 years have actually seldom been happy– the 2015 “confront with tears of delight emoji” resembled desperation. This year does not appear like bucking the pattern.
Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary has actually plumped for “enshittification”, created by Cory Doctorow, as its word of the year for 2024. The OUP is too “demure” for such an option. Possibly the American author Henry David Thoreau was explaining a comparable state of mind method back in 1845: “While England undertakings to treat the potato‑rot, will not any venture to treat the brain-rot, which dominates so a lot more extensively and fatally?”