EVERYONE'S TALKING ABOUT: Word of the year
Go on then, what is it?
That depends on who you ask.
I’m asking you.
In that case it’s enshittification.
Sorry?
It’s this year’s choice from Australia’s Macquarie Dictionary. Enshittening is also allowed.
Charli XCX, whose Brat album inspired one contender for the title
Use it in a sentence.
‘G’day Bruce, how’s the great enshittening going for you, mate?’
That’s made up.
All words are made up by someone. Author Cory Doctorow coined it in 2023.
What does it mean?
‘The gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.
How has the UK responded to the choice from down under?
‘We call that HMRC’ was typical… but don’t spend long looking at the online chat or you’ll get brain rot.
Brain fog?
No – brain rot is also word of the year, this time selected by the Oxford University Press (OUP).
I imagine I’m not the first to point out that’s two words.
Get in line. When The Times ran a story on Oxford’s winning word(s), reader Richard Carter wrote: ‘Can I be the 951st person to point out that it’s two words?’
Plenty of irritation produced by that article, then.
The online comments were, indeed, lengthy.
And what does brain rot mean?
Mental deterioration brought on by spending too long reading online comments.
How were the words selected?
The New York Times reports a 230 per cent upsurge in brain rot usage over the past year.
And how was that reported figure arrived at?
‘Oxford’s Word of the Year’, we learn, ‘is based on… evidence drawn from its continually updated corpus of some 26 billion words from news sources across the English-speaking world.’
Which would include stories prompted by the announcement of their annual word of the year award, right?
It’s ‘a bit of a dark art’ according to Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages at OUP.
Are we using ‘a bit of a dark art’ there as a synonym for ‘mostly made up’?
I knew the lexicographical niceties would be lost on you.
Is there a word of the year that people are actually using?
Brat!
I was only asking.
It’s word of the year, according to Collins Dictionary.
That’s not new.
Ah, but the usage is – taking its inspiration from English singer Charli XCX’s album Brat (released in June) and denoting a spirit of confident rebellion.
What else?
Maybe you prefer dictionary.com’s choice of demure (incidentally, also a runner-up for OUP’s award).
And what does demure mean in 2024?
Reserved or modest behaviour.
I’m not seeing the novelty.
You are not alone. ‘The OUP suddenly discovering that demure, strangely enough, means what it’s always meant,’ sniffed unimpressed Times reader J Moore.
I hope J Moore isn’t risking brain rot, hanging around in the comments section.
Demure refers to a TikTok craze last August that saw the catchphrase ‘very demure, very mindful’ applied to all sorts of situations.
Coming up with a word of the year sounds easy – I reckon I could do Casper Grathwohl’s job.
Try manifesting it, then.
As in imagining it, thus making it more likely to happen?
Yup – that’s the word of the year from Cambridge.
Dictionaries have gone to pot – I blame the internet for these silly concepts and made-up words.
Quite right.
At last, we agree!
Although I think what you’re trying to say is that we’re all living through the great enshittening.
I’m not rising to that.
Very demure of you… very mindful.
