It’s a phrase that’s been around for nearly two centuries, but amid an influx of social media use brain rot has been named the 2024 word of the year, according to Oxford University Press.
The word is defined as a supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially as a result from overconsumption of material considered to be “trivial or unchallenging.”
On Monday, Oxford announced it as their 2024 word after more than 37,000 votes from the public, worldwide public discussion and analysis of its language data.
“‘Brain rot’ speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time,” Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages, said.
“It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. It’s not surprising that so many voters embraced the term.”
According to its data, Oxford says the term increased in usage by 230 per cent from 2023 and 2024, with the organization noting it gained “new prominence” for capturing concerns about the impact of people consuming “excessive amounts of low-quality online content, especially on social media.”
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American author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau is said to have first used the term in his book, Walden, which speaks of his experiences living a simple lifestyle in the natural world. Thoreau criticizes society in the book for its tendency to devalue complex ideas in favour of simple ones, calling it indicative of a general decline in mental and intellectual effort.
Brain rot was one of several words on Oxford’s short list.
Demure was also up for word of the year following the spike in usage of the “very demure, very mindful” phrase, first made popular by TikTok user Jools Lebron in reference to her clothing and makeup choices. Demure made Dictionary.com’s word of the year for 2024.
Oxford puts out its word of the year after a panel analyzes the English language to summarize words and expressions that “have reflected our world” in the past 12 months. They look at data and trends to identify new and emerging words and consider suggestions from the public, as well as influential moments of the year to determine the shortlist.
This year is Oxford’s 20th for putting out an annual word.
Its first word of the year was “chav” in 2004, which has since declined in usage, and last year gave the title to the word rizz — a shortened form of the word charisma and defined as a person’s ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner through style, charm or attractiveness.
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