‘Brain Rot’ Crowned Oxford’s Word of the Year: TikTok Trend Highlights Concerns of the Digital Age

Brain rot, a term that has gained popularity on Tiktok, was voted “word of the year for 2024,” according to the publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary.With more than 37,000 votes, the phrase — which means “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” — beat out other “finalists” like “demure,” “dynamic pricing,” and “romantasy.”“Looking back at the Oxford Word of the Year over the past two decades, you can see society’s growing preoccupation with how our virtual lives are evolving, the way internet culture is permeating so much of who we are and what we talk about,” the Oxford Languages president, Casper Grathwohl, said in a statement posted on the Oxford University Press website. “Last year’s winning word, ‘rizz,’ was an interesting example of how language is increasingly formed, shaped, and shared within online communities.”The term brain rot was a major trending topic on TikTok’s video-sharing platform, increasing by a 250 percent frequency per million words from 2023 through 2024, according to Oxford.The phrase was first coined in 1854 in Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” in which the author opines about society tending to devalue complex thoughts and ideas.“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,” reads a passage from the classic tome.

‘Brain Rot’ Crowned Oxford’s Word of the Year: TikTok Trend Highlights Concerns of the Digital Age

‘Brain Rot’ Crowned Oxford’s Word of the Year: TikTok Trend Highlights Concerns of the Digital Age

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