Terminology – WOTTIES 2025 – Macquarie Dictionary “AI slop” Word of the Year

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Macquarie Dictionary is Australia's National Dictionary of Australian English. On November 24th, 2025, the Macquarie Dictionary Committee* announced that it had selected “AI slop” as the 2025 Word of the Year. A selection backed 100% by the People’s Choice, crowdsourced at the Dictionary’s website. 

The Macquarie Dictionary defined “AI slop” as “low-quality content created by generative AI, often containing errors, and not requested by the user”. The definition was illustrated as shown below. 

© Macquarie Dictionary

The Macquarie Dictionary Committee also selected two Honorable Mentions: the terms “clanker” and “medical misogyny”. By contrast, the People’s Choice only converged with the Committee’s choice on the term “medical misogeny”, electing for the Second Honorable Mention, the term “attention economy.”  

The Macquarie Dictionary defined the honorable mentions as follows. Each definition was also illustrated as shown below. 

clanker - A usually derogatory term for an artificial intelligence-driven robot which completes tasks that are normally performed by a human. 

© Macquarie Dictionary

medical misogeny - Entrenched prejudice against females in the context of medical treatment and knowledge, especially in the area of reproductive health.

© Macquarie Dictionary

attention economy - An economy in which human attention is treated as a major commodity, especially in advertising. 

© Macquarie Dictionary

______

Note
The Macquarie Dictionary Committee comprised:
- The Editorial Team at Macquarie Dictionary 
- David Astle – crossword maker, radio host, and writer.
- Tiger Webb – language research specialist, ABC.

References

Macquarie Dictionary

https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/?time=1765148169657
The Macquarie Dictionary Committee (Nov. 24, 2025). Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year for 2025.
https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/macquarie-dictionary-word-of-the-year-for-2025/ 

Terminology - WOTTIES 2025 - Collins Dictionary shortlisted Words of the Year

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Terms shortlisted for the Collins Word of the Year (WOTY) are no less interesting mirrors of a year’s worth of trends and events. Collins posted the following nine 2025 Words of the Year, competing with “vibe coding”, the one term that was selected as the 2025 Word of the Year. A list of nine terms, each including a copyrighted Harper Collins definition, as well as a supporting still image, and/or GIF animation.

• aura farming: The deliberate cultivation of a distinctive and charismatic persona. 

© Harper Collins Publishers 

• biohacking: The activity of altering the natural processes of one's body in an attempt to improve one's health and longevity.   
  

© Harper Collins Publishers 

• broligarchy: A small clique of very wealthy men who exert political influence.   

© Harper Collins Publishers 

• clanker: A derogatory term for a computer, robot, or source of artificial intelligence. 

GIF animation file unavailable for "clanker". 

Visit https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty

• coolcation: A holiday in a place of cool climate. 

© Harper Collins Publishers 

• glaze: To praise or flatter (someone) excessively or undeservedly.

© Harper Collins Publishers 

• HENRY (acronym for High Earner, Not Rich Yet): A person who has not accrued substantial wealth from their high income due to their lifestyle or external financial demands.

© Harper Collins Publishers 

• micro-retirement: A break taken between periods of employment in order to pursue personal interests.

 GIF animation file unavailable for "micro-retirement". 

Visit https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty

• task-masking: The act of giving a false impression that one is being productive in the workplace.

© Harper Collins Publishers 

References
Quinn, R. (Nov. 6, 2025).  Collins’ Word of the Year 2025: AI meets authenticity as society shifts. Collins Love of Language Blog.
https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/collins-word-of-the-year-2025-ai-meets-authenticity-as-society-shifts/#google_vignette 
Collins Word of the Year (WOTY)
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty

Terminology – WOTTIES 2025 – Collins Dictionary “vibe coding” Word of the Year

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Each year, the major English language dictionaries publish The Words of the Year (WOTY, plural WOTTIES). A list of terms, and the winner of them all, are selected by a committee of terminologists, often backed by the number of times the term(s) were searched online, and/or crowdsourced votes. 

Collins Dictionary selected “vibe coding” as the 2025 Word of the Year winner. A term first used on the social media platform X, on February 2, 2025, by Andrej Karpathy, former Director of AI at Tesla and founding engineer at OpenAI. In the X post, Karpathy described how easy it was to use AI-assisted programming tools, such as Cursor Composer and Claude Sonnet, designed to code and debug upon natural language prompting. He described how the tools were currently so good at executing his prompts that he could “give in to the vibes” (go with the flow) of coding, while “just forgetting that the code even exists”. In other words, he could use AI tools to do the computer programming, without writing and reading the unfolding code, or even attempting to debug it. A new jouissance, indeed!

By implication, according to Cress (2025) at the BBC, even if Karpathy's post on vibe coding addressed insiders, his X post also suggested that anyone could at least program a simple app, without any prior coding knowledge. All the user would have to do is request the program's features and functions. The example Karpathy provided for a weekend website construction project was that he could just ask the AI tool to "decrease the padding on the sidebar by half ", without even having to find the code that would execute such a change to the website's functional appearance. 

In turn, Collins defined the term “vibe coding” as "the use of artificial intelligence prompted by natural language to assist with the writing of computer code.” To illustrate the Dictionary's winning 2025 Word of the Year, Collins also posted the below animated GIF. 

© Harper Collins Publishers

References

Collins Dictionary (online)

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty

Cress, L. (Nov. 5, 2025) 'Vibe coding' named word of the year by Collins Dictionary.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpd2y053nleo 

Quinn, R. (Nov. 6, 2025).  Collins’ Word of the Year 2025: AI meets authenticity as society shifts. Collins Love of Language Blog.
https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/collins-word-of-the-year-2025-ai-meets-authenticity-as-society-shifts/#google_vignette 

Karpathy, A. (2025) Post on “X”.
https://x.com/karpathy/status/1886192184808149383?lang=en

Terminology: WOTTIES 2022 - The ADS WOTY Shortlist (2)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The American Dialect Society (ADS), Word of the Year (WOTY), shortlisted candidates are as interesting as ever this year. Submitted for nine of the most compelling categories of new words, by top American dialect specialists, the selections are extracted below from the Society's Press Release.  The category winners are indexed with an asterisk. The Press Release was put together by Ben Zimmer, self-proclaimed word nut, Chair of the ADS New Words Committee, language columnist at the Wall Street Journal, contributing writer for The Atlantic, and co-host of the Slate podcast Spectacular Vernacular. 

COMPETING WORD OF THE YEAR (2022)
Dark Brandon: sinister, powerful alter ego of Joe Biden (play on “Let’s Go Brandon”)
quiet quitting: doing no more than the minimum required for a job
rizz: effortless attractiveness or style (short for “charisma”)
Slava Ukraini: “Glory to Ukraine!” (said in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance)
special military operation: Russian designation for invasion of Ukraine

MOST USEFUL/MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED
* quiet quitting: doing no more than the minimum required for a job
climate criminal: celebrity who flies excessively via private jet
longtermism: ethical position that prioritizes improving the long-term future
nepo baby: celebrity who is the child of a celebrity
rizz: effortless attractiveness or style (short for “charisma”)

POLITICAL WORD OF THE YEAR
* Dark Brandon: sinister, powerful alter ego of Joe Biden (play on “Let’s Go Brandon”)
Dobbs: Supreme Court decision reversing abortion rights (as in “post-Dobbs”)
pink trickle/splash: result of Republican “red wave” in midterms not materializing
Slava Ukraini: “Glory to Ukraine!” (said in solidarity with Ukrainian resistance)
Woman, Life, Freedom: rallying cry for women’s rights in Iran and elsewhere

DIGITAL WORD OF THE YEAR
* -dle: suffix for Wordle-like games (Heardle, Absurdle, Foodle, Worldle, Redactle, etc.)
BFFR: initialism for “be fucking for real”
chief twit: self-designation of Elon Musk after acquiring Twitter
chronically online: spending so much time online that it warps one’s sense of reality
crypto rug pull: scam in which a fraudulent development team pumps a cryptocurrency token before disappearing with the funds, leaving investors with a valueless asset
touch grass: go outside (antidote to spending too much time online)
verse: online world, as in Metaverse (Facebook’s VR platform) or Fediverse (federated servers on Mastodon)

INFORMAL WORD OF THE YEAR
* it’s giving (X): description of something exuding a particular vibe or energy (from Black drag culture) 

dickriding: currying favor or sucking up to someone
(the) ick: feeling of disgust about one’s date
menty b: mental breakdown
rizz: effortless attractiveness or style (short for “charisma”)

MOST CREATIVE WORD OF THE YEAR
* -ussy: suffix as in Bottom rights subversion of the English language.
blorbo (from my shows): beloved fictional character from television or other media
-dle: suffix for Wordle-like games (Heardle, Absurdle, Foodle, Worldle, Redactle, etc.)
moid/foid: derogatory terms for men and women in incel culture
short king: positive or affectionate term for a man of modest stature

EUPHEMISM OF THE YEAR
* special military operation: Russian designation for invasion of Ukraine
camping: access to abortion, as used in informal networks circumventing state anti-abortion laws 

diverse-owned: of a business, owned by members of historically underrepresented groups
leg booty: algospeak substitution for LGBT
pronouns: trans/nonbinary gender identities, as used in transphobic rhetoric to mock pronoun choice
résumé embellishment: lying about one’s accomplishments

SNOWCLONE/PHRASAL TEMPLATE OF THE YEAR
* not X: ironic framing device expressing an attitude of mock horror or incredulity
if I text you X, it means Y: explaining how to interpret an emoji or series of emojis
#IStandWithX: expression of solidarity
it’s the X for me: singling out a notable or funny aspect of something, or finding fault with someone
she’s/he’s a 10, but X: pointing out a negative or quirky quality of someone
X hits different: describing an experience that is affecting in a meaningful way

EMOJI OF THE YEAR
* 💀 [skull]: expressing figurative death (from laughter, frustration, etc.)
🫠 [melting face]: expressing embarrassment or dread
🫡 [saluting face]: sign of respect or solidarity
🫥 [dotted line face]: feeling of invisibility
🚩 [red flag]: signaling danger or problems

 ⬜🟨🟩 [colored boxes]: for Wordle results

Reference

Ben Zimmer (website) 

https://benzimmer.com/

Spectacular Vernacular (podcast)

https://slate.com/podcasts/spectacular-vernacular 

Zimmer, B. (Jan. 6, 2023) American Dialect Society Selects “-ussy” as 2022 Word of the Year. American Dialect Society Press Release. 

https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2022-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf 

Terminology: WOTTIES 2022 - The American Dialect Society selected "-ussy" . (1)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The very distinguished, 133-year old,  American Dialect Society (ADS) voted the suffix -ussy as the Word of the Year (WOTY) 2022. Votes were cast on the occasion of the Society’s  Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, on Jan 5-8, 2023. 

The suffix -ussy as in Trader Joe’s Cuban spice “Citrusy Garlic” (see image below). But mostly, the playfully obsessive suffix -ussy, taking it’s cue from other more x-rated -ussification permutations that might reflect what is termed the Bottom Rights movement of gay, queer, lesbian and transgender linguistic efforts to subvert the English language.  

As Squirres suggests: “This -ussification is 1) kind of annoying, perhaps even on purpose. And 2) a great equalizer. It is subversive, it is Bottom Rights.” Indeed, “-ussification” would not even be seen as an online trend. It would be a part of a deliberate effort to “obliterate any notion of fixed meaning.” 

After all, fixed meaning isn’t that essential to human communication, is it? Take the following quote, and you’ll surely get it, even if your computer won’t: “The girls who girl, girl. The girls who girln’t, gorn’t.

References

Zimmer , B. (Jan. 6, 2023). American Dialect Society Selects “-ussy” as 2022 Word of the Year.  
https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2022-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf

Squirres, B. (Jan. 26, 2023). We asked linguists why people are adding -ussy to every word.
https://www.vulture.com/2022/01/bussy-trend-linguists-explain.html

Terminology – WOTTIES 2022 – Macquarie Dictionary - The People’s Choice (2)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The People’s Choice of the Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year (WOTY) is seldom the same as the dictionary’s WOTY Committee selection. This year is no exception. The People’s Choice of the Macquarie Dictionary 2022 WOTY is bachelor’s handbag, a take-out roasted chicken that requires no further preparation. The Macquarie Dictionary definition is included below, together with a picture of such a bachelor bag, captured in Perth, Australia.

People choice of the Word of the Year 2022

bachelor’s handbag noun Colloquial (humorous) a takeaway roast chicken. [from the fact that such a chicken requires no further preparation before consumption, so is seen as an easy meal favoured by a single person, and is often packaged in a small plastic bag with a handle, resembling a handbag].

The People’s Choice was selected from a shortlist of fifteen 2022 WOTY candidates, extracted by the dictionary’s WOTY Committee, from a longlist of sixty-nine 2022 WOTY candidates. Considering that shortlisted WOTY candidates are no less interesting than the winner of them all, the Macquarie Dictionary 2022 WOTY shortlist is included below, together with their dictionary definitions. All the terms are new, 2022 additions to the Macquarie Dictionary. 

barbiecore noun a fashion characterised by an all-pink colour palette, especially bright pink. [trademark for a popular female doll Barbie +CORE].

bossware noun Computers Colloquial software installed on an employee's computer which allows their employer to remotely monitor and measure activity and productivity, as by logging keystrokes and mouse movement, taking screenshots, etc..

brigading noun the organisation of a concerted effort by a large number of people to effect a particular action or change, as by online voting or reviewing.

clapter noun applause from an audience to indicate agreement with a comedian's joke or statement, especially one of political and social nature. [CLAP + (LAUGH)TER]

e-change noun a move from a city environment to a rural location, made possible by the facility of being able to, and being permitted to, conduct one's work remotely from home. [E + (SEA) CHANGE]–e-changer, noun.

gigafire noun a fire which burns through more than 100000 ha. Compare megafire, terafire. [GIGA- + FIRE].

goblin mode noun Colloquial a pattern of behaviour characterised by an embrace of indolence and slovenliness. [from the grotesqueness ascribed to the appearance of a GOBLIN]

hidden homeless phrase the, people with no home who stay temporarily with friends, family members, etc., and who do not access homeless support services during this period.

nepo baby noun Colloquial (sometimes derogatory) a celebrity, often in the entertainment industry, who has a famous parent. Also, nepotism baby. [so called from the insinuation that they have attained a high profile as a result of their parent's fame or connections].

orthosomia noun insomnia thought to be caused by preoccupation with obtaining the amount and quality of sleep recommended by a wearable sleep tracking device, often resulting in anxiety, which can in turn adversely affect sleep quality and the ability to fall asleep. [ORTHO- + (IN)SOMNIA]

pirate trail noun a trail which has been established or constructed without the required permission, used for mountain biking.

prebunking noun the practice of challenging the veracity of misinformation or disinformation, and the authority of its source, before such information is disseminated. [modelled on DEBUNK +-ING]

quiet quitting noun the practice of strictly limiting oneself to performing the tasks within one's job description, and working only the hours for which one is contracted. –quiet quitter, noun.

skin hunger noun desire for loving or friendly physical contact with another. Also, touch hunger.

spicy cough noun the, Colloquial COVID-19.

teal noun (also upper case) Politics an independent political candidate who holds generally ideologically moderate views, but who supports strong action regarding environmental and climate action policies, and the prioritising of integrity in politics. [so called as many of the candidates use the colour teal in their electoral material]

truth telling noun the act of relating the facts of a situation, exclusive of any embellishment or dilution applied as justification for past actions.

yassify verb to apply multiple filters and edits to an image or digital photograph, in order to transform the original image to one which is glamorous and beautiful. [from YAS QUEEN, popularised in 2021 by a Twitter account which posts such images] –yassification, noun.] Maquarie WOTY Shortlist]

References
Macquarie Dictionary
https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/

Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year Shortlist
https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/blog/article/898/

Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year Shortlist (pdf version)
https://media-macquarie-wspdigitalproduction-com.s3.amazonaws.com/media/hosted_files/Shortlist_WOTY2022.pdf

Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year Longlist
https://media-macquarie-wspdigitalproduction-com.s3.amazonaws.com/media/hosted_files/Public_Longlist_WOTY2022.pdf

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 – Macquarie Dictionary ‘teal’ (1)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Macquarie Dictionary is the official dictionary of Australian English. A committee that included two dictionary editors, the publisher, and two well-known Australian broadcasting personalities, selected the 2022 Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year (WOTY): “teal”, and the runner-up WOTY “truth-telling”. The selections were made from the political category of a longlist of sixty-nine new words, admitted to the Dictionary in 2022. According to the Macquarie Dictionary WOTY committee, the 2022 WOTY "teal" and runner-up WOTY  "truth-telling", respectively reflect the current year’s successful palette of “green + Liberal blue” politics, and the future reconciliation of Australian politics, which promises to include parliamentary representation for the First Nations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations, in 2023. 

The Macquarie Dictionary WOTY committee also selected three honorable mention 2022 WOTTIES: “bachelor’s handbag (a takeout roasted chicken), goblin mode (the COVID-19 slovenly lifestyle), and the spicy cough (a  facetious synonym for COVID-19).

The Macquarie Dictionary WOTY Committee selections are listed below, together with the extracted dictionary definitions. [Macquarie WOTY 2022]

2022 Word of the year

teal noun (also upper case) Politics an independent political candidate who holds generally ideologically moderate views, but who supports strong action regarding environmental and climate action policies, and the prioritising of integrity in politics. [so called as many of the candidates use the colour teal in their electoral material]

2022 Runner-up WOTY

truth-telling noun the act of relating the facts of a situation, exclusive of any embellishment or dilution applied as justification for past actions.

Honorable mentions

bachelor’s handbag noun Colloquial (humorous) a takeaway roast chicken. [from the fact that such a chicken requires no further preparation before consumption, so is seen as an easy meal favoured by a single person, and is often packaged in a small plastic bag with a handle, resembling a handbag]

goblin mode noun Colloquial a pattern of behaviour characterised by an embrace of indolence and slovenliness. [from the grotesqueness ascribed to the appearance of a GOBLIN]

spicy cough noun the, Colloquial COVID-19. 

References
Macquarie Dictionary
https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/

Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year 2022
https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/resources/view/word/of/the/year/2022

Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year Longlist
https://media-macquarie-wspdigitalproduction-com.s3.amazonaws.com/media/hosted_files/Public_Longlist_WOTY2022.pdf

Shepherd, T. (Nov. 28, 2022). Teal named Macquarie Dictionary’s word of the year – ‘an emblem of Australia’s political landscape’. The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/nov/29/an-emblem-of-australias-political-landscape-macquarie-dictionarys-word-of-the-year-is-teal

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - The Merriam-Webster shortlist (2)

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

If gaslighting is the uncontested Merriam-Webster Word of the Year 2022, the list of competing Merriam-Webster 2022 WOTY candidates is no less interesting. The following words, together with their definitions, were shortlisted.

• oligarch: Merriam-Webster notes that, even if the term oligarch has Greek roots, the use in question refers specifically to Russia, as in  “one of a class of individuals who through private acquisition of state assets amassed great wealth that is stored especially in foreign accounts and properties and who typically maintain close links to the highest government circles.” In this sense, searches for the term spiked 521% in early March 2022, when the US and other countries placed sanctions on Russian oligarchs and their families, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

• Omicron: To avoid the geographical stigma of origin, the World Health Organization (WHO) decided to use Greek letters to name the various significant mutations of the COVID 19 virus. In November 2021, the fifteenth letter of the Greek Alphabet “Omicron” was designated to name the most recent significant mutation of the virus, causing spikes in searches at the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, every time the news was flooded with Omicron-related headlines.

• endemic: Merriam-Webster defines endemic as: “a term used to describe a disease that is constantly present in a particular place". Consequently, the term endemic spiked 874% in January 2022”, in connection with the term Omicron.

• codify: Searches for the term codify are reported to have spiked 193% in 2022, due to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, on June 24, 2022. Code means "law" in this particular case, referring  directly to President Biden's suggestion that he would push for Congress to codify abortion rights, during the next Congressional session in 2023. 

• LGBTQIA: An old abbreviation expanded for inclusiveness. The abbreviation stands for: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning (one’s sexual or gender identity), Intersex and Asexual/Aromantic/Agender”. The term spiked in 2022, during the whole month of June, corresponding to the month-long celebration of Gay Pride. The term spiked again in the aftermath of a deadly shooting, at a gay nightclub, in Colorado Springs.

• sentient: This term spiked 180% in the aftermath of an incident  involving a Google engineer, who claimed that the company’s AI Chatbox had developed humanlike consciousness. A claim that the company vigorously denied, placing the employee on paid leave.

• loamy: This term refers to “a soil consisting of a friable mixture of varying proportions of clay, silt, and sand”. Searches for the term loamy are reported to have surged, when it was selected Quordle, a much harder version of the popular New York Times online game Wordle, on August 29th.

• raid: The term “raid” surged 970% in August 2022, after the FBI executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach residence. The event also prompted spikes in related searches for the term banana republic, referring to "a small and despotically run country". 

• Queen Consort: The title “Queen Consort” is reserved for the spouse of a reigning monarch. Following accession to the throne of the British King Charles III, on September 8, 2022, the title Queen Consort was bestowed upon Camilla, his wife.

References

Merriam-Webster (website)

https://www.merriam-webster.com/

Staff (Nov. 28, 2022). Word of the Year 2022 – Gaslighting.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year

NYT Wordle

https://nytwordle.io/

Quordle

https://www.quordle.com/#/

Terminology: WOTTIES 2022 - Merriam-Webster "gaslighting" (1)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Merriam-Webster has selected gaslighting, “the act of grossly misleading someone, especially for one’s own advantage”, as the Word of the Year (WOTY) 2022. 

Gaslighting is a term imported into the English language from the 1944 American psychological thriller, titled Gaslight. A big screen adaptation of the 1938 British theatre play, Gas Light by Patrick Hamilton, and blockbuster that received no less than seven Academy Award nominations, and won two, for Best Actress (Ingrid Bergman), and Best Production Design. 

Gaslight was the macabre story of a husband scheming to drive his wife crazy with lies and deceit, for the usual mix of envy, greed, lust and ambition. As a result, the meaning of the term gaslighting, in 1950: 

  [...] psychological manipulation intended to make a person question the validity of their own thoughts, perception of reality, or memories and typically leads to confusion, loss of confidence and self-esteem, uncertainty of one's emotional or mental stability, and a dependency on the perpetrator [Merriam-Webster]

was tightly correlated to the movie, and slightly different from the meaning in 2022, where it has become consonant with modern forms of personal and political deception, mediated by a vast array of technologies, such as fake news, deepfake, and AI in marketing.

To further circumscribe the meaning of gaslighting in 2022, Merriam-Webster distinguishes the term gaslighting from other terms, expressing deceit. Terms such as lying –which is personal, fraud –which involves organizations, and the more euphemistic, such as falsehood, untruth and prevarication, or the innocuous term fib. Additionally, Merriam-Webster offers the following examples of usage, extracted from various mainstream sources:

"I am sorry you feel this way” approach, along with avoiding an argument in lieu of admitting fault, is good old fashioned gaslighting. [Psychology Today]

Patients, who have felt that their symptoms were inappropriately dismissed as minor or primarily psychological by doctors, are using the term “medical gaslighting” to describe their experiences and stories.  [New York Times, March 28, 2022.]

My Committee’s investigation leaves no doubt that, in the words of one company official, Big Oil is gaslighting the public. [Rep. Carolyn R. Maloney, Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, Sept. 14, 2022.]

In any event, the true meaning of gaslighting might lie in the numbers (no pun intended). With so many diversified technologies and channels of communication, available to mislead and disinform, searches for the term gaslighting this year spiked a whopping 1740% online at Merriam-Webster, conferring without contest the title of Merriam-Webster WOTY 2022 to gaslighting.

References

Staff (Nov. 28, 2022). Word of the Year 2022 – Gaslighting. Merriam-Webster

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/word-of-the-year

Cabral, S. (Nov. 29, 2009). Gaslighting: Merriam-Webster picks its word of the year. BBC.com

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63798242 

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - Oxford English Dictionary "Goblin Mode"

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Remnants of pandemic lockdowns? Cynicism in a looming recession? The term goblin mode won the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Word of the Year (WOTY) 2022 contest. A contest breaking an almost 20-year tradition of  committee-selected WOTY, at the famous English dictionary that claims to be: The definitive record of the English language for more than 1000 years.

Goblin mode was competing for the Word of Year 2022 with Metaverse and the hashtag #IStandwith, when it won by a huge landslide. Indeed, Goblin mode won almost unanimously with 93% out of the more than 340,000 votes cast. Metaverse came in second with just 4% of the votes.

Defined as: “a type of behavior which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations”, the consensus makes one wonder. 

How representative was the sample of votes cast? Does the selection of goblin mode reflect post-pandemic experience, or is it the expression of unanimous liking for a term, that sweetly embraces going feral? The Guardian further describes Goblin Mode as: 

“embracing the comforts of depravity: spending the day in bed watching 90 Day Fiancé on mute while scrolling endlessly through social media, pouring the end of a bag of chips in your mouth; downing Eggo toaster oven waffles with hot sauce over the sink because you can’t be bothered to put them on a plate. Leaving the house in your pajamas and socks only to get a single Diet Coke from the bodega.”

Regardless of speculations on the reasons motivating voter preferences, Goblin mode will certainly go down in the OED history of WOTTIES, as the first people’s choice of the winner of ‘em all in 2022. 

References

Paul, K. (March 14, 2022). Slobbing out and giving up: why are so many people going ‘goblin mode’? The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/mar/14/slobbing-out-and-giving-up-why-are-so-many-people-going-goblin-mode

Oxford Word of the Year

https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/ 

 
Schuessler, J. (Dec. 4, 2022). The Word of the Year Goes Goblin Mode. NYTimes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/04/arts/goblin-mode-oxford-word.html

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - Cambridge Dictionary "homer"

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Cambridge Dictionary has selected homer as the 2022 Word Of The Year (WOTY). Nothing new about this word in the United States, where it has been a winner, at least since the dawn of baseball. 

A homer is a home run, originally in baseball, one of America’s favorite sports. Indeed, a homer is scored when the batter is able to hit the ball with such force that s/he is able to run through all the bases to home base, in a single bat. When all the bases are loaded with previous players, a homer also scores points for each player, moving to home base. The YouTube video below shows Aaron Judge's 62nd home run, on Oct. 4, 2022. A homer, marking a record-breaking streak for any single player, in a single-season of American League professional baseball. 

What is extraordinary about the selection of homer (not Homer, the Greek) as WOTY in 2022, is that searches for the word homer, at the online Cambridge Dictionary website, were reported to have spiked to 65,000, in a single day, on May 4th, when homer was wordle in the free, Internet word-guessing game, called Wordle®. An increase in searches that made homer the 2022 WOTY, in part because Cambridge Dictionary selects WOTTIES based on the qualitative and quantitative observation of terms searched online at the dictionary’s website, and in part because the American-English term homer threw so many British-English speakers into search mode.

However, you might also be wondering, what is Wordle®? Alternatively, why isn’t wordle, or the verb to wordle, the 2022 WOTY? After all, Wordle® is a word-guessing game that has taken over the Internet, even prompting the New York Times to purchase the online game for a low-seven figure. (Cunningham, 1-30-2022).

Briefly, in response to the first question about the Wordle® game: Josh Wardle’s Wordle®, is a cross between crossword puzzle and the Wheel of Fortune. An empty grid of 5 by 6 squares enables players to guess the 5-letter wordle of the day, in six attempts. The only clues provided are also the instructions, included below:

To answer the second question about the term wordle (noun or verb) not making the 2022 WOTY cut, the reason is probably that too few people queried the Cambridge Dictionary for the term wordle, preventing the word from even becoming a 2022 WOTY candidate. In fact, all of the searches that spiked for 2022 WOTY candidates were apparently other five-letter wordles. Wordles such as bayou, tacit, caulk and humor, with American-English spelling reported to have driven some of the searches, together with a bit of British-English speaker annoyance for getting stumped. Conversely, searches for the wordle bloke, the British-English equivalent of fellow in American-English, were also reported to have spiked, the wordle bloke, this time having vexed folks from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. 

References

Cunningham, A. (1-31-2022) NYTimes spends low seven figure to by Wordle. NY Times
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/01/whats-a-five-letter-word-for-acquire-nyt-buys-wordle-for-low-7-figures/

The Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year 2022
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/editorial/woty

Rosenberg, A. (Oct. 3, 2022). What’s Wordle? Here’s everything you need to know.
https://mashable.com/article/wordle-word-game-what-is-it-explained (since Oct, 2021 – John Wardle – inventor)

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - The Collins shortlist (2)

 Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The Word of the Year (WOTY) shortlist is no less interesting than the winner of them all. Especially this year, since the terms shortlisted are all related to permacrisis, the Collins WOTY selected for 2022.

Below, the shortlist of the 9 words that competed with permacrisis, together with the Collins animated gif files and jpeg stills, illustrating each of them. The list includes 5 additional neologisms, added to the Collins Dictionary in 2022: partygate, lawfare, warm bank, quiet quitting and splooting.

• partygate: [noun, informal] 

• carolean: [adjective; origin from the Latin Carolus meaning Charles] 

• Kiev: [noun] 

• lawfare: [noun] 

• quiet quitting: [noun, informal] 

• splooting: [noun, slang] 

• sportwashing: [noun, informal] 

• vibe shift: [noun, slang] 

warm bank: [noun] 

References

The Collins Word of the Year is…

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/woty

Shariatmadari, D. (Nov. 1, 2022). A year of permacrisis - Collins – Language Lovers Blog.

https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/a-year-of-permacrisis/

Terminology - WOTTIES 2022 - Permacrisis - Collins English Dictionary (1)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann 

The Collins English Dictionary has selected the neologism permacrisis, as the winning 2022 Word of the Year (WOTY). According to Collins, the term permacrisis, is defined as "an extended period of crisis and instability“, which sums up “just how truly awful 2022 has been for so many people.” A difficult year, not only in the United Kingdom specifically, where the third Prime Minister has just moved to Downing Street, but also in the world at large. 

Record high inflation, driving prices up, and overshadowing miraculous recovery from the COVID 19 pandemic; the horrific invasion of Ukraine, bringing famine in the Third World, and everyone else on the brink of nuclear warfare; climate crisis with once-in-a-century floods in parts of Australia, South East Asia and Venezuela.… that is permacrisis in 2022 —the opposite of stability and security. 

Below, the Collins animated Gif for permacrisis, showing some of the major 2022 disasters, cascading inexorably on a conveyor belt. As Shariatmadari stated on the Collins' Language Lover's Blog, the term permacrisis "perfectly embodies the dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another, wondering what new horrors might be around the corner."

References

Collins Permacrisis gif file.
https://resources.collins.co.uk/Dictionary/WOTY22/22.10.21_6709%20HARP_PERMACRISIS_RF_V3.gif

Milman, O. et al. (Oct. 20, 2022). ‘Nature is striking back’: flooding around the world, from Australia to Venezuela. The Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/oct/20/flooding-world-climate-crisis-australia-venezuela-nigeria

Shariatmadari, D. (Nov. 1, 2022). A year of permacrisis. Collins – Language Lovers Blog.

https://blog.collinsdictionary.com/language-lovers/a-year-of-permacrisis/

Suliman A. (Nov. 1, 2022). ‘Permacrisis’ is a dictionary’s word of the year in ‘truly awful’ 2022. The Washington Post. 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2022/11/01/permacrisis-2022-word-year-collins-dictionary/

Terminology – The American Dialect Society competing 2021 WOTTIES (2)

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

The American Dialect Society (ADS) competing Words of the Year (WOTTIES) are no less interesting than the winners. Below, the list of the competing WOTTIES, in each of the 2021 Word of the Year categories. (1)

The Word of the Year 2021 (extracted from the ADS Press Release)

• antiwork: position supporting the refusal to work, pushing back against labor exploitation.
• Big Lie: propagandistic distortion of truth, as in Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was “stolen”. 
• Great Resignation: pandemic-era phenomenon in which workers are leaving their jobs in large numbers. 
• long Covid: lingering symptoms and health problems experienced by people after they have recovered from Covid. 
• Omicron: name assigned by the World Health Organization for a highly contagious “variant of concern” of the coronavirus. 
• variant: new form of a virus, such as coronavirus, resulting from mutations. 
• vax/vaxx: shortened form of vaccine, vaccination, or vaccinate, often used as combining form (as in anti-vaxxer, Hot Vax Summer, double/triple-vaxxed, vaxxed and relaxed). 

Most likely to succeed Word of the Year 2021

• endemic: describing a disease that is always present in a community or population, as some predict will be the case for Covid-19. 
  
• Great Resignation: pandemic-era phenomenon in which workers are leaving their jobs in large numbers.
• mid: of average or poor quality, or simply  decent, in the amorphous Generation Z slang.
• NFT: abbreviation for non-fungible token, a digital asset using blockchain technology to make a unique token, with its own identification that cannot be replicated. 
• sigma male: term used in the masculinist “manosphere” for a male who is more introverted than an “alpha male” but is still considered successful. 
• shrinkflation: reduction of the size or quantity of a product while the price remains the same or  even rises.

Most useful Word of the Year 2021

• bussin’: extremely good, such as food that is indescribably tasty. 
• tone indicator: code such as “/srs” or "/lol" that indicates the tone (serious, ironic, humorous) of online discourse.
• vibe: mood or emotion, such as the positive feelings evoked by a piece of music; to exult in one’s good feelings. 

Political Word of the Year 2021

• Big Lie: propagandistic distortion of truth, as in Donald Trump’s false claim that the 2020 election was “stolen”.
• CRT/critical race theory: framework for analyzing how racism is embedded in law and policies, exploited as a scare tactic by politicians favoring “anti-CRT” legislation.
• mandate: official or authoritative command, as in politically contentious “mask mandates” and “vaccine mandates”. 

Digital Word of the Year 2021

• bones day/no bones day: prediction of whether a day will be good or bad (based on Jonathan Graziano’s TikTok videos of his dog Noodle getting up in the morning). See Youtube video below.
• girlboss: a confident, capable woman pursuing business ambitions; also used in a derogatory fashion for a woman cynically combining feminism with careerism.
• horny jail: imagined place a person is sent to as punishment for being excessively sexual on social media.
• parasocial: describing a relationship that a person imagines with someone whom they do not actually know, such as a celebrity on an online platform.
• the ___ urge to: ironic framing device to describe stereotypical tendencies and traits, as in “the feminine urge to…”

Pandemic-related Word of the Year 2021 

• breakthrough: describing an infection, as from coronavirus, after a person has been vaccinated.
• Delta/Omicron: Greek-letter names assigned by the World Health Organization for coronavirus “variants of concern”.
• flurona: sickness from a combination of the influenza virus and the coronavirus. 
• long Covid: lingering symptoms and health problems experienced by people after they have recovered from Covid.
• variant: new form of a virus, such as coronavirus, resulting from mutations.
• vax/vaxx: shortened form of vaccine, vaccination, or vaccinate, often used as combining form (as in anti-vaxxer, Hot Vax Summer, double/triple-vaxxed, vaxxed and relaxed).

Financial/economic Word of the Year 2021

• Great Resignation: pandemic-era phenomenon in which workers are leaving their jobs in large numbers.
• NFT: abbreviation for non-fungible token, a digital asset using blockchain technology to make a unique token, with its own identification that cannot be replicated.
•  SPAC: abbreviation for “special purpose acquisition company”, an investment vehicle that allows a company to go public without going through the traditional IPO process.
• stimmy: shortened form of stimulus, used in reference to government stimulus checks. 
• stonk: deliberate misspelling of stock, used by online day traders for their investments, esp. for “meme stocks” like Gamestop (aka Gamestonk).

Informal Word of the Year 2021

• cheugy: term used by members of Generation Z to poke fun at the off-trend lifestyles and fashions of millennials.
• down bad: used to describe intense (typically sexual) desperation.
• flop era: time in which a person, such as a pop star, enters an unsuccessful period.

Most creative word of the year 2021

• chin diaper: face mask worn below the chin instead of properly covering the nose and mouth.
• copium: the rationalizations, justifications, and denial one uses to deal with a severe letdown or personal failure (a blend of cope and opium).
•  -core: productive suffix for aesthetic trends, such as gorpcore (functional outdoorsy gear), emancicore (non-restrictive clothing emphasizing freedom), and goblincore (chaotic aesthetic inspired by goblin folklore).

Euphemism of the year 2021

• election integrity: euphemism used for voter suppression.
• glizzy: slang term for a hot dog (also used to describe fellatio, as in glizzy gobbling). 
• TFG: abbreviation for “the former guy,” an expression used by President Biden to refer to his predecessor Trump without saying his name.

___________ 

Note

(1) Members of the ADS voted for the winners , in each category, on the occasion of the Society’s 133rd Annual Meeting (online), on January 6-7, 2022. The winning 2021 Words of the Year, selected by the members of the American Dialect Society, are listed in the previous post.

References

American Dialect Society  https://www.americandialect.org/ 

Word of the Year – American Dialect Society.

https://www.americandialect.org/2021-word-of-the-year-is-insurrection 

Word of the Year – American Dialect Society. - Press Release.
https://www.americandialect.org/wp-content/uploads/2021-Word-of-the-Year-PRESS-RELEASE.pdf