"Brain rot" is a perfect phrase for this past year.
Posted on 12/04/2024 11:05:40 AM PST by Red Badger
Oxford has officially announced its pick for Word of the Year for 2024, a pair of words describing a phenomenon that, sadly, many are likely to be familiar with today.
‘Brain rot’ was announced as Oxford’s selection for the year after tallying the results of a public vote in which 37,000 participated. The choice, revealed in an announcement on Oxford University Press’s website, resulted from an initial selection of six words curated by Oxford language experts, which they collectively felt “reflect the moods and conversations that have helped shape the past year.”
Two weeks and 37,000 votes later, the Oxford team said the results were clear: “Brain rot” was the people’s choice.
While the term somewhat dismally reflects people’s current views on the state of our society, it is also an enigma in terms of its selection for the prestigious recognition of Oxford Word of the Year, notably since it first appeared in print 170 years ago.
According to Oxford, the earliest known use of the term “brain rot” was in 1854, when it appeared in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden.
“While England endeavours to cure the potato rot,” Thoreau mused at the time, “will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”
Thoreau’s intended meaning 170 years ago still holds true today. Oxford currently defines ‘brain rot’ as “the 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.”
Oxford also recognizes the term’s application regarding “something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.”
“Our experts noticed that ‘brain rot’ gained new prominence this year as a term used to capture concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media,” an official statement announcing the selection revealed, adding that the term saw a reported increase in use of close to 230% over the last twelve months.
The term, which began to see increased usage on sites like TikTok and among Gen Z and Gen Alpha users, has also become more common in journalism and other popular mediums.
Perhaps most intriguing of all, Oxford’s language experts note that the rise in the use of “brain rot” with relation to specific content appearing online has even resulted in what they characterize as wholly unique “brain rot language” (BRL) that includes new words like skibidi, a term users employ to describe nonsensical things or behavior, as well as new meaning applied to old terms like the word “Ohio,” which in BRL means “something embarrassing or weird.”
Oxford’s language experts say such developments indicate “a growing trend of words originating in viral online culture before spreading offline into the ‘real world.’”
Although the prevalence of the usage of “brain rot” might superficially appear to indicate a concerning rise in phenomena that contribute to the deterioration of our collective mental and intellectual states, fortunately, that may not really be the case. As Oxford’s language experts also note, the term’s prevalence throughout 2024 has also seemingly led to “more serious conversation about the potential negative impact that excessively consuming this content might have on mental health,” especially among younger audiences.
“‘Brain rot’ speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time,” said President of Oxford Languages Casper Grathwohl in a statement.
“It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology,” he added, comparing the term to the 2023 Word of the Year winner, “rizz,” which Oxford defines as meaning “style, charm, or attractiveness,” or “the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner.”
“I find it fascinating that the term ‘brain rot’ has been adopted by Gen Z and Gen Alpha, those communities largely responsible for the use and creation of the digital content the term refers to,” Grathwohl also said.
“It demonstrates a somewhat cheeky self-awareness in the younger generations about the harmful impact of social media that they’ve inherited,” he added.
Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.
Word of the Year!..................
The last several decades.
"Brain rot" is a perfect phrase for this past year.
They even describe it as a term, yet here it is “word” of the year.
This is what passes for the pinnacle of higher education today.
Not much of a list from which to choose:
The shortlist, now open to public vote, is as follows:
• 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 characterised 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 characterised 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.
I’d have voted for “bigly” or “yuuuge” myself.
That’s two words. Which, given the source, isn’t surprising.
Keeping in mind that Oxford is BRITISH...
2004: Chav
> Part of speech: Noun
A young person of a type characterized by brash and loutish behaviour and the wearing of designer-style clothes (esp. sportswear).
2005 (US): Podcast
> Part of speech: Noun
A digital audio file of speech, music, broadcast material, etc., made available on the internet for downloading to a computer or portable media player.
ALSO READ: 30 Words That Didn’t Exist 30 Years Ago
2005 (UK): Sudoku
> Part of speech: Noun
A type of logic puzzle, the object of which is to fill a grid of nine squares by nine squares (subdivided into nine regions of three-by-three squares) with the numbers one to nine, in such a way that every number appears only once in each horizontal line, vertical line, and three-by-three subdivision.
2006 (US): Carbon-neutral
> Part of speech: Adjective
Making or resulting in zero net emission of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
2006 (UK): Bovvered
> Part of speech: Adjective
Used rhetorically to express indifference to or a lack of concern about something (with allusion to the catchphrase of a character played by British comedian Catherine Tate).
A person whose diet consists only or principally of locally grown or produced food.
2007 (UK): Carbon footprint
> Part of speech: Noun phrase
The environmental impact of a particular individual, community, or organization, or of a specific event, product, etc., measured in terms of the total associated greenhouse gas emissions.
ALSO READ: Popular Slang Words That No One Uses Anymore
> Part of speech: Noun
The practice of making adjustments to a vehicle or using driving techniques that will maximize the vehicle’s fuel economy.
2008 (UK): Credit crunch
> Part of speech: Noun phrase
A severe reduction in lending by banks and other financial institutions, typically as a result of widespread (or anticipated) defaulting on loans, mortgages, etc.
2009 (US): Unfriend
> Part of speech: Verb
To remove (a person) from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking website.
2009 (UK): Simples
> Part of speech: Interjection
Used (usually immediately after a statement giving a solution to a problem) to indicate that something is very simple or straightforward to do, understand, resolve, etc.
2010 (US): Refudiate
> Part of speech: Verb
Used loosely to mean “to reject” [a portmanteau of “repudiate” and “refute”].
ALSO READ: 10 Words That Don’t Mean What You Think They Do
2010 (UK): Big society
> Part of speech: Noun phrase
A political concept whereby a significant amount of responsibility for the running of a society’s services is devolved to local communities and volunteers.
> Part of speech: Noun phrase
The section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes, and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty, consisting principally of those people on low or middle incomes.
> Part of speech: Noun
A standard format for encoding images as compressed color bitmap graphics files which enables them to be displayed, stored, and transmitted between networks.
2012 (UK): Omnishambles
> Part of speech: Noun
Chiefly in political contexts: a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, or is characterized by a series of blunders and miscalculations.
2013: Selfie
> Part of speech: Noun
A photograph that one has taken of oneself, esp. one taken with a smartphone or webcam and shared via social media.
2014: Vape
> Part of speech: Verb
To inhale and exhale the vapour of (a substance) using an electronic cigarette or similar device.
2015: Emoji
> Part of speech: Emoji
2016: Post-truth
> Part of speech: Adjective
Relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping political debate or public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.
2017: Youthquake
> Part of speech: Noun
A significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people.
2018: Toxic
> Part of speech: Adjective
[“It is the sheer scope of its application, as found by our research, that made toxic the stand-out choice for the Word of the Year title.”]
2019: Climate emergency
> Part of speech: Noun phrase
A situation in which urgent action is required to reduce or halt climate change and avoid potentially irreversible environmental damage resulting from it.
2020: (none)
> Part of speech: n/a
[“As our Word of the Year process started and this data was opened up, it quickly became apparent that 2020 is not a year that could neatly be accommodated in one single ‘word of the year’.”]
2021: Vax
> Part of speech: Noun and verb
;^)
I figured the Brits would have nominated the word Rubbish. So much of society is full of garbage these days. From celebrities to politics. It’s full of garbage and garbage people. Look at our media. It’s one big pile of excrement, I mean garbage. The current occupant of the white house is garbage. I would say that Rubbish should be the word for 2024. It describes so many people and things in society.
That’s two words. Is that two years’ worth of words of the year?
Can we thank Biden for this?
Root rot!
Yes, it is a “term”
The message, that we all know from careful or even casual investigation,
is that Joe Biden is suffering from brain rot. How the hell does the US population accept this??
The next weeks cannot go fast enough, for me.
Did you hear Sen. John Kennedy’s statement after the Hunter Biden “Pardon?”
” ROCK BOTTOM HAS A BASEMENT!”
That is a clever way to say, “Lower than low!”
Hmm...it’s two words used as one. There are plenty of other examples.
Two words used as one does not make for a valid Scrabble word.
“folic acid” is in the top 4 best-selling dictionaries in the USA but “folic” by itself is not. Thus, folic is not a valid Scrabble word.
Now you do have a point. If “brain rot” were not in the dictionary, most would be able to figure it out.
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