The Oxford University Press (OUP) has shortlisted six words for its annual Word of the Year competition, providing word lovers everywhere with the opportunity to vote.
The public voting, which has been open to word lovers for the third consecutive year, will allow people around the world to vote on the shortlisted words - lore, dynamic pricing, demure, brain rot, slop and romantasy.
This year’s shortlist, chosen to reflect some of the moods and conversations that have shaped 2024, has been compiled by OUP’s experts following analysis of its 25-billion-word corpus of language data.
Words such as demure which trended throughout the year have made the shortlist.
TikTok creator Jools Lebron in August made the word go viral with his explanation that being demure is all about being mindful, cutesy, and not doing too much.
@_theoriginaltiktok Very cutesy very demure original video! Original creator @Jools Lebron #fyp #foryoupage #demure ♬ original sound - The Original
The competing six words and expressions have seen a notable spike in usage and gained new prominence in 2024.
• Lore (n.): A body of (supposed) facts, background information, and anecdotes relating to someone or something, regarded as knowledge required for full understanding or informed discussion of the subject in question.
• Brain rot (n.): Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.
• Dynamic pricing (n.): The practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions; in particular, the charging of a higher price at a time of greater demand.
• Demure (adj.): Of a person: reserved or restrained in appearance or behaviour. Of clothing: not showy, ostentatious, or overly revealing.
• Slop (n.): Art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic, or inaccurate.
• Romantasy (n.): A genre of fiction combining elements of romantic fiction and fantasy, typically featuring themes of magic, the supernatural, or adventure alongside a central romantic storyline.
Speaking about this year’s selection, Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, said: “Since 2004, we’ve aimed to provide a window into language and cultural change through the Oxford Word of the Year.
“The 2024 shortlist represents a snapshot of the topics that have caught our interest and imagination and kept us talking.
“Capturing themes from finances to fantasy, what is particularly unique about this year’s selection is the range of words associated with bygone eras that have slid back into public consciousness – in some cases after being adopted and retooled by online communities.”
Voting will close on Thursday November 28 and OUP will conduct a last detailed analysis, considering corpus data, votes, and public commentary on the finalists, before naming the definitive Word of the Year for 2024 on December 2.
To vote go to https://bit.ly/3UTQ25v
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