'Brain rot' is the most popular word of 2024

Over 37,000 people participated in the voting to select the winning word from a shortlist of six words compiled by Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary.

This annual award aims to reflect the mood and trends of the year. “Brain rot” is defined as “a decline in a person’s mental or intellectual abilities, particularly considered to be the result of excessive consumption of trivial or worthless material.”

"Brain rot" is defined as a decline in a person's mental or intellectual abilities. (Image: Safes)

Oxford University Press says the word “brain rot” first appeared in Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 book Walden. The term came to prominence in 2024 as a way to reflect concerns about the effects of consuming too much poor-quality online content, especially on social media.

Casper Grathwohl, chairman of Oxford Languages, said: “'Brain rot' reflects one of the hidden dangers of the virtual world and how we use our free time. It’s no surprise that many people voted for this term, seeing it as a worthy choice this year.”

The five words on the shortlist that didn’t win included: “demure” (which became popular after a summer social media trend, referring to discreet or responsible behavior); “dynamic pricing” (prices that change based on demand); “lore” (a collection of basic knowledge and information about someone or something); “romantasy” (a novel genre that combines romance and fantasy) and “slop” (poor quality online content generated by artificial intelligence).

Unlike Oxford, the Cambridge Dictionary announced "manifest" as the word of the year for 2024 last month – a trend that encourages imagining achieving a goal with the hope that it will come true. The word has been searched 130,000 times on the Cambridge Dictionary website.

Hoa Vu (Source: The Guardian)

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/thoi-nao-la-tu-noi-bat-nhat-nam-2024-ar910978.html