It is the time of year when English language lexicologists tell us what words have become popular in the last 12 months.
Online dictionaries constantly add new words to their database and evergreen words that acquire new meanings. An online dictionary typically has more than 500,000 words defined for language-lovers and sticklers insisting on using the right word to communicate.
Collins Dictionary’s 2023 Word of the Year is “AI”. The Collins lexicologists argue that “an explosion of debate, scrutiny and prediction” was enough to justify their choice. Sociologists and politicians debate whether artificial intelligence is an enabler or a threat to how decisions that affect people’s lives are taken.
Interestingly, the Cambridge Dictionary’s pick for 2023 is “hallucinate”. Of course, this is not a new word, as those who have experienced this medical condition can confirm. According to Cambridge, an alternate definition of hallucinating is “when an artificial intelligence (= a computer system that has some of the qualities that the human brain has, such as the ability to produce language in a way that seems human) hallucinates, it produces false information.”
I had an experience of this type of hallucination when a private clinic chatbot said that my identity card number, which I have been using for decades, was “not valid”. Luckily, the human customer service official I had to contact after spending several minutes waiting on the phone admitted that their AI-driven chatbot was still in its learning curve.
The editor of Merriam-Webster, Peter Sokolowski, commenting on the spread of artificial intelligence, told Associated Press: “Can we trust whether a student wrote this paper? Can we trust whether a politician made this statement? We do not always trust what we see anymore. We sometimes do not believe our own eyes or our ears. We are now recognising that authenticity is a performance itself.”
Merrian-Webster Word of the Year for 2023 is “authentic”. This online dictionary has added 690 new words this year, even if “authentic” is by no means a new word.
Merrian-Webster’s entry of “authentic” has different meanings. Many are familiar with expressions like ‘authentic cuisine’, ‘authentic voice’ and ‘authentic person’. In the age of deepfakes and post-truth, as artificial intelligence rose, “authentic” understandably acquired new meaning.
An online dictionary typically has more than 500,000 words defined for language lovers and sticklers insisting on using the right word to communicate
Online dictionaries shortlisted other words that were popular in 2023. One of my favourites is “deinfluencing”, which was selected by Collins Dictionary. We now have a new profession of influencers trying to use online platforms to promote products or lifestyles.
“Deinfluencing” is the act of using one’s platform to warn followers away from products or lifestyles. This proves that Newton’s Third Law of Motion that ‘For every action, there is an equal (in size) and opposite (in direction) reaction’ applies just as well to social communication.
I am surprised that “inflation” did not make it to Word of the Year of at least one of the online dictionaries. Admittedly, Collins Dictionary shortlisted “greedflation”, which describes “using inflation as an excuse to unnecessarily raise prices to increase corporate profits”.
Collins’s oddest, most bizarre choice this year is “semaglutide”. This drug, commonly known as Ozempic, “lowers blood sugar and suppresses the appetite to help people with both problems”. I suspect that economic policymakers may soon be using this word to describe the need for a metaphorical drug that deals with the condition of ‘economic obesity’.
Many blogs across the internet are using the phrase “nepo baby”. This is short for nepotism and describes “a person whose career is believed to have been advanced by famous parents in the entertainment or political sphere”.
The UK research agency Perspectus Global recently surveyed 2,000 Britons to identify the cringeworthy words people hate most. Not surprisingly, most of the hated neologisms were coined by millennials.
The top word most of those surveyed identified was “amazeballs”, followed closely by “holibobs”. “Amazeballs” means “rather splendid”, while “holibobs” means “holidays”.
Neuroscientist Rachel Taylor argues: “If someone used a sword or phrase that we find embarrassing, as humans, we instinctively want to distance ourselves from them.
Obviously, the words we find embarrassing are not objective. They are culturally specific.”
Languages are constantly evolving. While investing in a good physical dictionary is still commendable, online dictionaries quickly record changes in how we communicate. Your spellchecker will still underline some of the words that have made their mark in 2023, but wordsmiths are unlikely to give up on their quest to coin new words.