Wiktionary:Votes/2024-11/Word of the Year

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Word of the Year

Voting on: Whether to choose a Word of the Year, a word that was popularised this year. The word of the year would be displayed somewhere on the main page for a few weeks in late December and January, and absolutely no later than 31 January. A lot of dictionaries and publications have their own “word of the year”, and Wiktionary should join in on the fun. The words listed below are separated by various categories; some are somewhat jocular, and others are more formal. These will likely not be displayed on the main page to avoid cluttering it, and this vote is only for deciding upon the word of the year.

There are no limits on votes by category; a user could vote for every single entry in a category if they so wished and render their vote entirely pointless. Additionally, a user may nominate a word if they so wish; but keep in mind that nominating too many words might clog it up.

Schedule:

Discussion(s):

Support

  1. Support Ioaxxere (talk) 03:49, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
  2. Support In the worst case scenario, Wiktionary can do this once or twice and not do it again. Wiktionary can and should do what other dictionaries do. The word of the year for Merriam Webster in 2023 was 'authentic'-. The word of the year for Dictionary.com in 2024 is 'demure'- . Are Merriam Webster and Dictionary.com engaging in a practice that is "not a serious exercise in lexicography"? Perhaps they are! But is it in line with the practices of other dictionaries to have a word of the year? Yes. And the word of the year generates news and commentary (publicity) for dictionaries. Wiktionary always needs to grab the opportunity to attract readers and editors. I believe that Wiktionary will likely make some bad or unusual choices for word of the year, but so have other dictionaries. So I think Wiktionary should assume its rightful place among the dictionaries of the world and have a word of the year, despite the likely problems, which will be ironed out over time. Wiktionary is on the level that it can do a word of the year like other dictionaries do. --Geographyinitiative (talk) 09:25, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
  3. Support Flame, not lame (Don't talk to me.) 15:43, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
  4. Support as nom. I think it would be a fun idea—tons of other dictionaries have a word of the year and I genuinely think it would be interesting to see our take on it. LunaEatsTuna (talk) 23:37, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
  5. Support. However, we shouldn't promote neologisms popularized by social media as the "word of the year." Imetsia (talk (more)) 22:43, 30 November 2024 (UTC)
  6. Support. -saph668 (user—talk—contribs) 01:39, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
  7. Support too, but, as others pointed out, we should avoid choosing social media-exclusive neologisms, especially bizarre, brainrot, or cringy slangs, as the word of the year. --Davi6596 (talk) 03:23, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
  8. Support, as my concerns below were resolved, and I don’t identify any other negatives. My feelings on this are similar to Davi6596’s above, and my votes for each category will reflect that. ~Gonna vote on multiple. Polomo47 (talk) 22:30, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
    There are some more interesting words we could consider... coquette, girlypop, for the plot. Polomo47 (talk) 22:36, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
  9. Support Binarystep (talk) 00:56, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
  10. Support. It would be good to choose something topical, inoffensive and non-political though (maybe skibidi, Pookie or brainrot). --Overlordnat1 (talk) 01:02, 11 December 2024 (UTC)
  11. Support. It'd be fun and it might give us some more outside attention. Huge agree with Overlordnat1 above me too though: let's not pick anything inflammatory. MedK1 (talk) 15:34, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
  12. Support. Though I do agree with the criticisms, in the end, this would just be a bit of year-end fun by and for the casual crowd; something not requiring the same level of scrutiny as more serious issues. While Wiktionary is overtly formal and academic, should trendy youth/internet slang become WOTY, then it's a good advertisement that Wiktionary covers that kind of language too. And on usefulness, having a WOTY brings about the side-project of maintaining a list of WOTY nominees – a page I watched eagerly and found very useful in learning new slang terms as they dropped. Vuccala (talk) 17:56, 24 December 2024 (UTC)
Word of the year
Noun of the year
Verb of the year
Adjective of the year
Title of the year
Abbreviation of the year
Interjection of the year
Phrase of the year
Emoji of the year

Oppose

  1. Oppose. I'm reading most of these words for the first time. I just don't like any of these words. Maybe it's because I only rarely use social media, but the overwhelming majority of these terms feel like they see use almost exclusively on websites like TikTok and X and wouldn't represent 2024 for the people who don't use those websites. If we do nominate one of these neologisms, what's the chance it's still in use a year from now? Five years? Ten years? My guess is less than 50%. Gelasin (talk) 00:00, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    @Gelasin that was an error on my part – these are supposed to be words coined/popularised this year. Some of your point still stands. LunaEatsTuna (talk) 02:48, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    @LunaEatsTuna In that case, I should mention that it seems like many of these words were coined/popularised in 2023 or earlier. Gelasin (talk) 03:41, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    It's not a black and white thing. A word might have been coined or popularized earlier but then significantly increased in usage throughout 2024. We have a quote for brain rot from 1854! Ioaxxere (talk) 03:55, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    @Gelasin: "The overwhelming majority of these terms feel like they see use almost exclusively on websites like TikTok and X" is completely wrong, although I guess no one likes to be told that they're not with it anymore :) (you're free to add your own choices, of course) Ioaxxere (talk) 03:46, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    @Ioaxxere Here are some quotes from the nomination page you created:
    "short-lived TikTok meme around late 2023."
    "popularized on TikTok in January 2024"
    "popularized on TikTok around late 2023"
    "regularly discussed on Twitter (X)'"
    "another snore TikTok trend"
    "lots of real usage examples on X."
    It goes on and on. There are 39 results for the string "TikTok" on that page alone. I think "completely wrong" is a bit of an overstatement. Gelasin (talk) 03:57, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    39 instances of the word "TikTok" (not a very scientific measure) on a list with well over 200 words? That seems pretty far from an overwhelming majority. Also, the page you linked is not part of this vote. Ioaxxere (talk) 04:26, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    Your page is part of the vote so much as it is the source of literally all of the entries on this vote. Scientific or not, these options are Zoomer/Generation Alpha slang terms that most Wiktionary visitors haven't heard of. Gelasin (talk) 05:05, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    Yeah, what is TikTok? :) Tollef Salemann (talk) 07:57, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
    I agree with @Gelasin. The words listed appear to mostly be internet/youth slang not tied to any events of 2024 - these could have been coined at any time. I prefer when WOTYs are tied to the events of the year. If there simply weren't any such words in 2024, then that's totally fine - a slang word will have to do. My reservation being that internet slang usually soon feels dated/cringy, which is something one might not want in a WOTY. I probably agree with having a WOTY though, but I'll hold off casting a vote for now. Vuccala (talk) 02:31, 29 November 2024 (UTC)
  2. Oppose. The idea of declaring a 'Word of the Year' may seem like a good idea at first, but in practice it is basically a fad that more often than not ends up boiling down to advocacy ("look, we like this word!") and not a serious exercise in lexicography. Here you can already see signs of that in the page linked (WT:WOTY/2024). If we want to take this idea seriously, we should instead perhaps allow a small list of words that became popular around this year, perhaps restricted to words popularized this year and not really used in earlier years, and make sure we treat each entry from a purely lexicographical standpoint, without trying to impart our own personal biases on them. I personally believe that is not possible and so I cannot support it. — SURJECTION / T / C / L / 05:13, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    Weak oppose, because of the entries that the nominator proposed for Word of the Year — changed my vote; see Support. My initial thought was that these brainrot terms really irk me, and I started to wonder why. As it turns out, most of the words on this list don’t even meet the criteria for Word of the Day, because, well, they’re offensive. Even beyond the proposed Insult of the year, which should be all but ruled out based on policy, there are undeniably vulgar words in the proposal such as (but not limited to) edge, raw dog, and hawk tuah.

    That’s not all: let’s take a more literal (i.e., less lenient) reading of our WotD policy, “A nominated word should not be something you would be embarrassed to use in front of your boss or your grandmother.”. Consider that the entire point of using brainrot words, at least in the senses we list them as, is for their shock value; you would not use any of them (beyond, perhaps, the descriptor brainrot itself) when near polite company. “Note also that many parents and schools automatically filter out pages that include certain offensive words.” I’ve heard rumor of schools banning words such as skibidi — have you all not?

    In conclusion, I heavily oppose the proposal as it is because of the words chosen to back it, which don’t even qualify for Word of the Day. Nevertheless, I marked my vote as “weak” because it might not be hard to fix this, especially since the vote proposal itself does not make mention of the specific words. I would change my vote to support if the proposed words were filtered to take into account Wiktionary:Word of the day/Nominations#What not to nominate. Polomo47 (talk) 23:09, 28 November 2024 (UTC)
    @Polomo47 Thank you for your comment; I really appreciate the length you went to in order to help me improve this proposal! Your point regarding WOTD is perfectly valid and I will remove all entries which we mark as vulgar as well as § Insult of the year. I cannot comment on the “brainrot” terms more generally, like skibidi, which are bizarre rather than vulgar; they are certainly strange but seem okay to me to list here as they are unlikely to offend, and they seem outnumbered by most of the other nominees we have. LunaEatsTuna (talk) 00:34, 30 November 2024 (UTC)
    Weak oppose because of not only the reasons Polomo47 said but also the excess of categories, which'd defeat the purpose of Wiktionary "join in on the fun" of " lot of dictionaries and publications" and make the voting process hard or complicated.
    However, I'll change my vote if the shortcomings are addressed.     --Davi6596 (talk) 15:10, 29 November 2024 (UTC)
    @Davi6596 Thank you for commenting! I believe I have addressed Polomo47's concerns. Regarding yours: only the chosen word of the year would actually appear on the main page. The rest are more for fun and will not be featured anywhere (outside of mayB the project mainspace somewhere) given that most editors here seem to be against the idea. Voting on them is optional. Feel free to ask any further questions, LunaEatsTuna (talk) 00:40, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
    @LunaEatsTuna: Thanks for your answer, I'm gonna change my vote. Davi6596 (talk) 03:15, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
  3. Oppose I've always found it a cringy grasping-at-relevancy when Oxford does it, and Wiktionary doesn't even have a stodgy reputation to shed. If the candidates seemed a selection of fascinating linguistic developments I might be on board but they all seem like either bald fad-chasing or "eat your pussy". Out of all these words I'd choose lock in, but even that doesn't fill me with any enthusiasm, just damage control. — This unsigned comment was added by Simplificationalizer (talk • contribs) at 03:47, 1 December 2024 (UTC).
    @Simplificationalizer That is an interesting idea! The closest I can think of to a linguistic development this year might be “brain rot spam” itself; it started in late 2023 but became much more prevalent this year. I could be wrong but I cannot recall 2016 (for instance) having a trend wherein people spammed new slang words or used them excessively in an ironic fashion similar to how one might today say “skibidi Ohio rizz”. Albeit not that fascinating per se, it indeed seems like a new linguistic development. “Miami English” also started to get coverage in the media this year but it actually started much earlier. Other recent trends from the past decade would include stuff like tone indicators, keysmashing, neopronouns, code-switching on Twitter and new dialects like MLE, MTE and Antarctic English. Thank you for taking the time to comment—I appreciate it. Your opinion regarding WOTY is valid and I cannot change your view, but it would be cool to somehow tackle or document linguistic trends more generally instead. LunaEatsTuna (talk) 00:04, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
  4. Oppose per Surjection. Thadh (talk) 10:45, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
  5. Oppose: Terminally online brainrot, and many of these entries don't even hint that they were "popularised this year": freaky explains nothing; Pookie explains nothing; lock in explains nothing; lobotomy explains nothing; unserious explains nothing; down bad explains nothing…. —Fish bowl (talk) 23:31, 1 December 2024 (UTC)
    @Simplificationalizer @Fish bowl: You guys can support this idea and suggest non-brainrot terms. The word of the year doesn't have to be one. Davi6596 (talk) 02:33, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
  6. Oppose. — Fytcha〈 T | L | C 〉 16:44, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
  7. Oppose per Surjection. PUC – 16:53, 2 December 2024 (UTC)
  8. Oppose. The idea of promoting an already popular word even further, instead of promoting something on the basis on being interesting (like Word of the day and Foreign word of the day) runs counter to the spirit of the Wikimedia movement. This is supposed to be a dictionary, not yet another vapid circlejerk obsessed with popular culture. You can go to any social media platform to find a community like that. --Veikk0.ma (talk) 15:20, 3 December 2024 (UTC)
  9. Oppose per Surjection and Veikk0.ma. – Svārtava (tɕ) 20:14, 3 December 2024 (UTC)
  10. Oppose per Surjection. Vininn126 (talk) 11:05, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
  11. Oppose all of the options are cringe and I don't believe we can achieve a consensus on what the WOTY should be. —AryamanA (मुझसे बात करें • योगदान) 16:49, 4 December 2024 (UTC)
    A lot of these entries are very common and used earnestly, so IMO there is no need to call youth slang “cringe”. Also, for those who voted they seem very keen on brain rot, so a consensus for a WOTY is reasonable. LunaEatsTuna (talk) 23:38, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
  12. Oppose per Surjection and AryamanA. MuDavid 栘𩿠 (talk) 02:24, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
  13. Oppose. This really feels like coming late to the party. I don't think it adds "fun" to Wiktionary, and I don't think a popular vote of Wiktionary editors would elucidate much about the language or culture of the past year. Cnilep (talk) 07:56, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
    That is actually a really good point; the only reason I made it a vote was in the spirit of the collaborative nature of Wiktionary, but the flaw is admittedly clear. Thanks for the feedback, LunaEatsTuna (talk) 23:38, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
  14. Oppose Brainrot and arbitrary. And consumes attention of editors more than it attracts new ones. Fay Freak (talk) 17:05, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
    All of these entries were carefully chosen based on their usage on social media and search volume on Google Trends, and were all popularised or coined this year. Also, a lot of these are not “brainrot” (obviously some of them are used ironically or for shock value) and are actually used earnestly by a lot of young people, like unc, glaze, yap, lock in, cooked, Pookie, slop etc. There is no need to dismiss their language no matter how odd it seems to those who do not use these words. As a dictionary, their language choices are totally valid. LunaEatsTuna (talk) 23:29, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
    I respect your opinion, but dismiss the perspective. I know not what earnest is nowadays. Little recommends to pick on this their language, and to task editors therewith. If I vote for a fidget then I have to consider what happens if LunaEatsTuna grows out of it and suddenly delves into classical studies or law or whatever sustainably challenging. Abandonware, one won’t be good-humoured enough for, since we also maintain our positions and the project with all earnest. Fay Freak (talk) 05:41, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
  15. Oppose per Surjection. Also, wasn't this idea already rejected last year? tbm (talk) — Preceding undated comment added 13:28, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
    Yes, it is linked above in the Discussion(s) section. But most who voted against it said the vote was too last-minute as there were no options given from the start. LunaEatsTuna (talk) 19:09, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
  16. Oppose I could perhaps support something that had specific criteria, such as use in multiple media (including three uses in durably archived media, esp. print) as well as widespread use in some media. Expressions specific to one or two "generations" or a single social-media platform are undesirable for a wiki like us that attempts to reach a wide audience. DCDuring (talk) 14:16, 6 December 2024 (UTC)
    @DCDuring Thank you for commenting! Would you support the proposal if the entries were checked for the things you are concerned about? I did purposefully avoid numerous terms specific to just a single (as well as just two) social media platforms, and many might be used by up to three hypothetical “generations” (like lock in, yap and I heard my parents use glaze); some have also already appeared in print and journalistic publications. Additionally, I believe even if our audience has not heard of some of these words they may find them interesting/educational, especially if we make sure to pick the most “lexically interesting” or unique ones! LunaEatsTuna (talk) 15:44, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
    @User:LunaEatsTuna I would oppose all of the terms advanced above to be WiktWord of the Year ("WWOTY"). Perhaps a persuasive rationale might change my mind. Is our WWOTY supposed to compete with the others on topicality coupled with popularity? Or is it supposed to fill some kind of gap in what the others cover? Can we cover ourselves with glory either way? DCDuring (talk) 16:23, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
  17. Oppose for basically the same reason as last year. No popularity contest please. Nardog (talk) 08:45, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
    The idea was that it be the most popular/used new word of 2024.. which basically makes it a popularity contest. LunaEatsTuna (talk) 13:13, 13 December 2024 (UTC)
    There's a huge difference between a popularity contest among all users of English (or at least the documented portion of it) and a popularity contest among Wiktionary editors. I'm not opposed to adding some editorial voice, but the starting point must be empirically based. Nardog (talk) 14:19, 14 December 2024 (UTC)
  18. Weak oppose. This really needs a better process. Right now it doesn't even seem like a popularity contest, rather, it seems like random people add things to Wiktionary:WOTY/2024 and then the handful of editors who happen to be here choose something at random. Could this be more data-driven? Or could users nominate an individual word and explain WHY it's a good candidate for WOTY? Apocheir (talk) 23:42, 17 December 2024 (UTC)

Abstain

  1. Abstain. I really like the idea of WOTY, but maybe it would've been better to vote on the idea (and how to choose a word) before getting to this point. More importantly though, I have noticed a strong divide growing in the Wiktionary community between some newer folks who are more focused on documenting newer English slang & emphasizing page views with online presence vs. the older Wiktionary editors who are more focused on niche lexicography. Neither group is necessarily wrong (and I tend to fall into the latter group), but the conflict has come into play before, and this vote is its prime example. I believe that there needs to be a better consensus as to what the purpose of Wiktionary is (if there is one) and how to reconcile the two competing schools of thought, otherwise we'll keep running into votes & clashes like these. AG202 (talk) 05:12, 5 December 2024 (UTC)
    @AG202: Your division doesn't make any sense. Documenting English slang is niche lexicography, unless by "lexicography" you mean "not slang". Documenting slang and brainrot terms with the same amount of respect we would give any other entry is, as I see it, descriptivism taken to its logical conclusion. The conflict between descriptivism and prescriptivism is much older than Wiktionary itself, although I'm not sure whether that's relevant to this vote in particular. Ioaxxere (talk) 04:08, 7 December 2024 (UTC)
    But the people who add English "brainrot" and the people who don't act different, with the brainrotters focusing more on internet fame and the nicheites focusing on adding terms that they want to. That's what AG is pointing out, not that English slang isn't lexicography. CitationsFreak (talk) 07:12, 7 December 2024 (UTC)
    Yes, "niche lexicography" wasn't the right term, sorry @Ioaxxere. I more so meant the folks that are focusing on things like plant terms in an endangered language or modules for niche conjugation patterns, things that will maybe get 5 views max in a 30-day period. It's not an issue of prescriptivism vs. descriptivism, as many folks working on endangered languages are descriptivist as well, but more so the differences in priorities, such as documenting & showing current online trends in English vs. improving coverage in smaller languages (albeit with much fewer views). The two can coexist, but I think there needs to be a way to reconcile them, because clearly votes like these show a stark and immediate difference. AG202 (talk) 04:14, 9 December 2024 (UTC)
  2. Abstain. I don't mind if we have a WOTY or not, but if people aren't keen, and the proposal is going to be voted down anyway, may I suggest instead a most annoying word of the year, which may be more eye-catching and generate more attention. And can I nominate "obviously", which many people now apparently cannot help inserting as a totally meaningless filler word into almost every sentence that they utter. Mihia (talk) 22:24, 21 December 2024 (UTC)

Decision

Failed 12–18–2. Gelasin (talk) 01:41, 25 December 2024 (UTC)

Though this vote failed, had it passed, brain rot would have been declared the word of the year, which is what the OUP ended up choosing. 0DF (talk) 20:30, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
Great minds think alike (and just don't finish the full proverb). Also, Merry Christmas, LunaEatsTuna (talk) 23:04, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
@LunaEatsTuna: And a merry Christmas to you, too. 0DF (talk) 23:49, 25 December 2024 (UTC)
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