[Global Focus] "Is it like Beyonc? lost the Grammy?" Do you agree with the Word of the Year 2024?

Looking Back at the 'Word of the Year' for 2024

At the end of each year, there is always something that appears in the news: the ‘Word of the Year.’ Announced mainly by major dictionary publishers around the world, the Word of the Year has been regarded as a key indicator reflecting the social and cultural trends of that year. In 2016, when then-President-elect Donald Trump won the presidential election for the first time, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) selected ‘post-truth’ as the Word of the Year, a term that perfectly reflected the social issues of fake news and political distortion at the time. The 2022 Word of the Year, ‘Goblin Mode,’ was also analyzed as revealing the new zeitgeist immediately following the pandemic. So, what word summarizes 2024?

'Most Prestigious' Oxford University Selects 'Brain rot'... Some Say the 'Rightful Winner Is Slop'

Oxford University Press, regarded as the most authoritative dictionary publisher worldwide, selected ‘Brain rot’ as the Word of the Year for 2024 earlier this month. The term raises issues about information overload and fatigue experienced by modern people due to sensational low-quality digital content such as Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts. Casper Graswal, head of Oxford University Press, described it as “a word that tells us how we are spending our leisure time.”

Oxford University Press began announcing the Word of the Year 20 years ago, in 2004. The first Word of the Year was ‘chav,’ referring to a group that enjoys high-end brands or upper-class culture in a lowbrow way and lives as they please. Since then, the press has conducted about two weeks of public voting, expert discussions, and analyses on multiple candidates before selecting the Word of the Year annually. This year, there were six final candidates.

Oxford University Press, publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), has announced the Word of the Year 2024. OED website

This year, another word that narrowly lost to Brain rot in a similar context also drew the spotlight. The Washington Post (WP) published an article earlier this month titled “Sorry, Oxford Dictionary Fans. This Is the Real Word of the Year,” comparing it to Beyonc? losing a Grammy to Harry Styles in the past, stating, “Slop, not Brain rot, is the rightful winner. It’s the perfect word for 2024.”

Originally, slop referred to food scraps or low-quality food. However, in today’s AI era, it has gained a new meaning: ‘inaccurate and indiscriminately distributed low-quality content online.’ A representative example is the so-called ‘Shrimp Jesus’ images that spread worldwide via Facebook and other platforms. Have you ever felt bewildered or burst out laughing at images of Jesus covered in shrimp with arms outstretched, or Jesus with shrimp-shaped lower body crossing the sea on social media? The purpose of these images was clear?not religious disparagement, but to optimize social media algorithms to induce more ‘likes’ and ‘follows,’ thereby generating revenue.

In fact, behind these Shrimp Jesus images lie concerns about distortion and spread of AI-generated images and issues with content filtering on social media platforms. This is why slop is not just a word for low-quality content but is seen as representing the stimulation and confusion brought about by the economic and algorithmic structures of digital society. The UK’s Financial Times (FT) recently named slop as the word that best describes this year in a column related to AI, noting, “AI can build a better future, but it’s impossible unless low-quality content like spam is stopped first.”

Alongside this, other final candidates presented by Oxford University Press also attracted attention. These included ‘Demure,’ meaning modest or reserved; ‘Dynamic pricing,’ which refers to pricing products and services differently based on demand; ‘Romantasy,’ a novel genre combining romance and fantasy; and ‘Lore,’ a term encompassing background knowledge needed to understand a particular theme or universe.

Major foreign media especially noted that all these candidates are linked to the digital and internet era. Graswal said, “Looking back at Oxford’s Words of the Year over the past 20 years, we can see growing societal interest in how our virtual lives are evolving and how internet culture deeply permeates our identities and the things we talk about.”

New Words Reflecting the Times: Enshittification, Demure, Brat, and More

The Words of the Year reflecting the digital and internet era do not end there. Australia’s most authoritative dictionary, the Macquarie Dictionary, selected ‘Enshittification’ as its Word of the Year. Coined by a Canadian writer, this neologism combines the English slang ‘shit’ with the prefix ‘en-’ meaning ‘to make’ and the suffix ‘-fication’ meaning ‘-ization.’

Macquarie Dictionary defines it as “the phenomenon where the quality of services or products gradually deteriorates as a result of declining service quality and profit-seeking, especially on online platforms.” It points to situations where platforms that launched with high-quality free services start increasing advertisements to expand profits, resulting in more ads and low-quality malicious posts than content, rapidly degrading the platform’s quality. This word was also listed in the American Linguistic Society’s Words of the Year last year.

The US online dictionary site Dictionary.com selected ‘Demure,’ which became popular through a TikTok creator’s video, as its Word of the Year. This word was also a final candidate for Oxford University Press this year. While demure traditionally means modest or reserved, it has recently been widely used to mock stereotypes about women. A TikTok creator’s video titled ‘How to be demure at work’ became a kind of meme by proudly showing off her work outfit as “very demure.” According to Dictionary.com, the online usage of this word increased by a whopping 1200% from January to August this year. In the latter half of the year, a fashion trend called ‘demure look’ even emerged.

Words reflecting the political situations of various countries in the ‘election year’ 2024 were also confirmed. The American dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster selected ‘Polarization’ as its Word of the Year, noting the extensive use of the term in the media due to the US presidential election held in November. Merriam-Webster defines polarization as “a division into two sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions or beliefs, especially when a society or group’s views or interests are concentrated at the extremes without overlap.” Unlike Oxford University Press, which considers social impact, Merriam-Webster tends to focus more on search trends. In 2020, ‘pandemic’ and in 2022, ‘gaslighting’ were chosen as Words of the Year.

The UK’s Collins Dictionary selected ‘Brat,’ a word originating from pop star Charlie XCX’s album. It is used mainly by young people with a positive meaning describing a ‘confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.’ After Charlie XCX posted “Harris is a brat” on her social media account, the term was used during this year’s US presidential election to symbolize young women supporting Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Some speculate that if Vice President Harris had won the November US election, ‘Brat’ would have been the Word of the Year.

Additionally, the UK’s Cambridge Dictionary selected ‘Manifest’ as its Word of the Year, meaning ‘to express clearly’ or ‘to realize something by internalizing it.’ In today’s world where uncertainty has become the new normal, the word is praised for instilling a kind of positive mindset of ‘can do.’ China’s National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center selected artificial intelligence and new quality productivity as its Words of the Year. In Korea, the Professor Newspaper, which announces a four-character idiom of the year annually, chose ‘Doryangbalho’ (跳梁跋扈), meaning to act arbitrarily and tyrannically. Although the vote was conducted just before the declaration of martial law, it coincidentally matched Korea’s current situation.