Oxford University Press has picked its word that sums up the year 2024.
The organization counted more than 37,000 votes, analyzed language data and conducted a worldwide discussion before whittling down the list of contenders to the term “brain rot.”
The usage, according to Oxford, grew 230% between 2023 and 2024 because of “concerns about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media.”
The official definition of the word is “(n.) Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a 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.”
While it relates to online content now, you may be surprised how old the term is.
The first recorded use of the word was in 1854 in “Walden” by Henry David Thoreau, Oxford said.
According to Thoreau-online.org, the following passage from the book’s conclusion contains the term: “Sometimes we are inclined to class those who are once-and-a-half-witted with the half-witted, because we appreciate only a third part of their wit. Some would find fault with the morning red, if they ever got up early enough. ‘They pretend,’ as I hear, ‘that the verses of Kabir have four different senses; illusion, spirit, intellect, and the exoteric doctrine of the Vedas’; but in this part of the world it is considered a ground for complaint if a man’s writings admit of more than one interpretation. While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot, will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?”
Brain rot beat out words such as demure (the word of the year for Dictionary.com), dynamic pricing, lore, romantasy and slop.
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