The Oxford University Press has named its Word of the Year. For not the first time, The Word of the Year is not a word, its a short phrase, a combination of two words. Those words are “brain rot.” Brain rot is not a medical condition. It's more of a mental one. Oxford defines it 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. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.”
Oxford explained that the term has gained increased prominence as a result of the consumption of low-quality content, especially on the internet. This website notwithstanding, there is a lot of this sort of material online eating away at the brains of the young. Once thought of as an amazing resource to find all sorts of information, the internet has evolved into more of a source of brain rot. Evolution is not always progressive.
Oxford found there has been a 250% increase in the frequency of use of the term “brain rot” from 2023 to 2024. They have not said whether there has been a 250% increase in the amount of brain rot itself.
Oxford traced the first use of the term “brain rot” back to 1854, and it was not by a man noted for being on the cutting edge of culture, fashion, or “coolness.” It came from a man noted for going off to the woods to live alone, far away from civilization. It was from Henry David Thoreau, the hermit of Walden Pond. Even in 1854, Thoreau was writing about the decline of intellectual content and complex ideas, even though he liked the simple life. He wrote, “While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” It took almost two centuries, but Thoreau is finally up-to-date and on the cutting edge. Cool dude. The thought would probably make him sick.
“Brain rot” had to beat out five other contenders for this year's Word of the Year honors. Oxford experts pick six terms and then the public picks which becomes the Word of the Year. The losers were demure, dynamic pricing, lore, romantasy, and slop. The winner last year was “rizz,” short for (and easier to spell than) charisma. For 2022, it was “goblin mode,” a term unfamiliar to me that apparently means self-indulgent, lazy, and other unsociable behaviors that reject societal norms. However, some earlier Words of the Year are now part of the lexicon, such as podcast, unfriend, vape, vax, and selfie.
Dictionary.com also announced a Word of the Year, and theirs is one of Oxford's runners-up. They selected “demure.” They found a 1,200% increase in the use of this word. They attributed its use to Tik Toker Jools Lebron's use of the term in videos she posted. If you've never heard of Jools Lebron before, you need not feel embarrassed. I'm not. She is an “influencer,” which might well be 2025's Word of the Year. Their runners-up were brainrot (spelled as one word), brat, extreme weather, Midwest nice, and weird. Last year, they selected “hallucinate,” and in 2022 “woman.”
