Was 2024 skibidi, sigma or Ohio? Maybe for some but not for the wordsmiths at leading dictionary publishers.
Both Dictionary.com and Cambridge Dictionary selected the words their editors believe were the Word of the Year for 2024.
Dictonary.com selected the word “demure” which went viral over the summer. The website said demure saw a “meteoric rise in usage” up 1,200% from January through August all thanks to a TikTok video published by Jools Lebron, who coined the phrase, “very demure, very mindful.” The video then inspired others — RuPaul, Jennifer Lopez and even social media queen Kim Kardashian — to be “demure” in their lives and their product promotions.
The dictionary website said it combed social media trends, news headlines and words that jumped from online to everyday conversations to determine demure’s ranking, beating out words such as brainrot, brat and weird, CNN Reported.
Collins Dictionary, another dictionary publisher, chose one of the runners-up for its word of the year — brat. Brat by its 2024 definition is someone “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.” The dictionary credited entertainer Charli XCX for bringing brat to the forefront. She defined the word as “the girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things some times,” CNN reported.
Finally, the Cambridge Dictionary editors chose neither demure nor brat, instead selecting “manifest” for its word of the year, the BBC reported.
Instead of its traditional definitions of “easily noticed or obvious” from 1380′s Chaucer or “to show something clearly through signs or actions,” from Shakespeare’s time the current usage is “to use methods such as visualization and affirmation to help you imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen,” according to Cambridge.
Manifesting success has been a mantra for Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and singer Sabrina Carpenter.
“Manifest won this year because it increased notably in look-ups, its use widened greatly across all types of media due to events in 2024, and it shows how the meanings of a word can change over time,” Cambridge Dictionary publishing manager Wendalyn Nichols said.
Cambridge also had the other dictionaries’ words of the year on the shortlist with brat and demure accompanied by Goldilocks, or an exact right situation.
© 2024 Cox Media Group
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