As we approach the year’s end, the year-end lists begin. First up, the dictionary people.

For a few years now, dictionaries have issued their ‘word of the year’ lists, just to remind people that dictionaries still exist. The lists are based primarily on how often the word appears online, which is odd in that all the dictionaries come up with different words. 

Let’s begin with the Oxford Dictionary, the Rolls-Royce of dictionaries. The Oxford folks chose rage bait as their word of the year, despite the undeniable fact that rage bait is two words. But hey, they’re linguists, not mathematicians. 

Rage bait isn’t difficult to define, but Oxford weighed in with a 34-word definition. Simplified, it’s content that is deliberately designed to make you angry. A simpler definition would be “any content about Donald Trump”. Even though rage bait is TWO WORDS, this is a good choice, certainly better than some of their other contenders, such as aura farming (defined as “cultivating an impressive or attractive persona … to convey an air of confidence”, formerly called looking good), and biohack (“to attempt to improve or optimize one’s physical or mental performance … by using drugs, supplements or technological devices”, a.k.a. Khardashionizing). 

The Cambridge Dictionary weighed in with parasocial, defined as “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc. or an artificial intelligence.” Parasocial dates back to 1956, when it first appeared in an academic article titled “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction”, which may have referred to the mania over Elvis Presley. Today, it would be the public’s obsession with Taylor Swift. (By the way, any guesses who her maid of honour will be? My money is on Selena Gomez. I mean, they’ve been friends just for EVER, and she’s just so-o-o adorable!)

Collins English Dictionary picked something called vibe coding, defined as “the use of AI … to assist with the writing of computer code”. Some of their other options were better. Clanker is a derogatory term with Star Wars origins used to describe robots, computers and AI, and broligarchy, referring to billionaire Silicon Valley bros. And may I add … vibe coding is TWO WORDS.

Macquarie, a dictionary from Australia, chose AI slop, defined as “low-quality content created by generative AI, often containing errors and not requested by the user”. Merriam-Webster simply chose slop, which you might have noticed is one word. If you wish to see a real-world example of AI slop, go to ChatGPT, ask it to define AI slop, and wait for the answer. If it comes up with “send me a picture of yourself naked”, you’ve found AI slop.

Here at home, we don’t have an official dictionary to choose our word of the year, but experts from Queen’s University made their choice, and it is maplewashing, described as “the deceptive practice of making things look more Canadian than they actually are.” A better choice would have been elbows up, a previously obscure hockey term, now used to express our defence of Canada. Until Mike Myers wore a t-shirt with ‘elbows up’ on Saturday Night Live, I had never heard the term. Now, I’m sick of it.

And finally, Dictionary.com – the same guys who made demure last year’s word – weighed in with the most controversial choice – 67. No, not sixty-seven. It’s pronounced six/seven. If you are unfamiliar with 67, it’s likely because you are not a member of what is called Gen Alpha (born after 2010) or are a junior high school teacher. The popularity of 67 apparently stems from a song called “Doot Doot (6 7)” by something called Skrilla. It means, well, nothing that anyone can divine. It’s just something pre-teens say to annoy adults. Whatever credibility Dictionary.com had has been destroyed. I mean, how can a word with no real meaning be the word of the year? 

And, if I may … it’s TWO WORDS! That is so not demure.