Words that marked eras

What is "doomscrolling"? 10 terms chosen as "Words of the Year"

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Fifty years ago, you would have been met with blank stares if you had used words like "unfriend" or "doomscrolling." When you read a list of the selected Words of the Year from the last two decades, you get a comprehensive snapshot of the main worldwide preoccupations of our time. Whether driven by technology, fashion, popular hobbies, or social media use, these words have become ingrained in the lexicon of dozens of countries. Let’s explore ten of the most interesting terms that prestigious English dictionaries have selected as "Words of the Year" in this century.

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In 2006, when Facebook was launched to the general public, the era of social media craze began. Teenagers as well as adults from all over the world slowly started joining the site with the blue logo to create their own accounts and reconnect with long-lost friends and acquaintances. By 2009, however, many people were regretting this.

The Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year for 2009 was "unfriend." The term symbolized a new type of online relationship dynamic that social media was enabling. Oxford considered that the verb had the potential for longevity in a world where millions were making and breaking digital bonds every day. Although it is not as relevant today as it was 15 years ago, similar terms like "unfollow" are still common currency.

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Although self-portraits have existed for as long as photography itself, the invention of devices with front-facing cameras allowed people to carefully review images before capturing them. For the first time ever, it became very easy to take many flattering photos of oneself.

The earliest known use of the word "selfie" appeared in the 2000s. It is a playful diminutive (hypocorism) of the term "self-portrait photograph" that first caught on in Australian slang and later spread worldwide. In 2013, following the boom of sites like Instagram, Oxford Dictionaries named "selfie" the Word of the Year, explaining that its use in the English language had grown by around 17,000% in 12 months. The popularity of the word has become such that nowadays, front-facing cameras in smartphones are often called "selfie cameras."

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This word was originally a slur. It derives from the German word geck, which means "fool" or "freak." For centuries, it was used pejoratively in that spirit, mainly to refer to carnival performers. However, by the time Collins Dictionary named it Word of the Year in 2013, its definition had changed. It had come to refer to a person enthusiastic about or knowledgeable in a particular field.

The editors at Collins explained that this word was chosen to signal how an old insult could evolve to have a positive connotation for experts worthy of admiration. After all, since the early 2010s, the word had been reserved for technologically oriented savvies who have been leading the way with this century’s inventions.

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Photobombing is the act of appearing in the background of a picture and distracting from the main subjects, whether intentionally or not. For several months in 2014, one photo of several celebrities simultaneously photobombing a selfie broke the record for shares on Twitter at the time, which helped turn the word into a mainstream concept.

Collins Dictionary named it the 2014 Word of the Year. However, it is believed that, much like selfies, photobombs have existed for a long time. A picture taken in 1853 in Wales already showed two ladies sitting for a portrait while a third, captured in blurrier detail, poked her head out from behind them.

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Yes, the 2015 Word of the Year was controversial: it was an emoji. Technically, emojis are "pictographs"—graphical symbols that resemble the objects they represent. In 2015, the Oxford Dictionary decided that the smiley face with tears of joy was representative both of laughter and of ironic preoccupation. This emoji was the second most used worldwide, behind only the red heart emoji.

The creation of these icons, however, dates back to the 1990s in Japan. They were developed to enhance the expressiveness of electronic messages through the use of logograms. Emoji is a Japanese word that combines e, meaning "picture," and moji, meaning "character."

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The digital content-streaming platforms introduced over the last 20 years have allowed people to develop a very modern hobby: binge-watching. Most often applied to TV series, the term refers to marathons of consuming two or more episodes of a show, usually in a self-indulgent way. The term can also apply to watching movie series or online videos in the same manner.

Though the expression has modern connotations, it has been used to describe fanatical consumption of TV content since the 1950s. Collins Dictionary named it the Word of the Year for 2015 after observing its usage rise by 200%, mostly applied to people who watched the TV series House of Cards or Breaking Bad in surprisingly short periods.

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To recycle means to remake a material into its original form; for example, making a bottle out of a bottle. But to "upcycle" means to give a new purpose to an already used product; for example, using a bottle as a flower vase. The trend of finding new uses for old or discardable items surged in the 2010s, and the Cambridge Dictionary noticed an increase in its popularity in 2019.

The term was coined in a 1994 ecology article suggesting that instead of "recycling" waste products, a more helpful practice would be to "upcycle" them—that is, to give them a second, more useful life. In this case, the institution held an open poll where the audience could vote for their favorite Word of the Year. "Upcycle" was chosen because of its significance in the efforts against waste pollution.

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Designers of modern portable devices succeeded in modeling display screens as if they were endless scrolls. This format may have facilitated reading on vertical screens, but it also encouraged an addictive habit of non-stop media consumption referred to as "doomscrolling."

The Macquarie Dictionary, the dictionary of Australian English, named this word the 2020 Word of the Year for its rapid rise in usage during that period. Several English dictionaries have since incorporated it as a recognized word. "Doom" refers negatively to the overwhelming sense of despair or captivity caused by excessive internet use. "Doomsurfing" is another version of the term with a similar meaning..

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Gas Light was a 1938 play by British playwright Patrick Hamilton. In it, a man slowly drove his wife into mental instability by confusing her and lying about verifiable facts, such as whether the gas lights were fully lit or not. Psychologists later adopted the term to describe abusive manipulation through deception, and the concept became mainstream within a few years.

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary named "gaslighting" the Word of the Year after searches for the word rose by 1,740% in 2022. It was noted, however, that the term’s use had expanded to describe media and technology accused of "gaslighting" audiences by publishing misleading information.

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The term "rizz" became online slang after a popular video creator and his friends started using it to refer to a person with an attractive attitude. The widespread understanding was that the word was a shortened form of "charisma," or a synonym for having charm. Kai Cenat, the American creator who popularized the term, said he didn’t intend it as a synonym for "charisma," but the word took on a life of its own after becoming a trending expression online.

Oxford Dictionary named "rizz" the Word of the Year for 2023, a term that won against close contenders like "Swiftie," "prompt," and "de-influencing," all of which had been widely popular across English media in 2022.

ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE

"Love Is Blind" And 10 Other Phrases That Came From Shakespeare

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Shakespeare’s genius even influenced many phrases and idioms we unknowingly use every day. That's why we have comprised this list of ten common expressions that were either created or made famous by Shakespeare and his characters.

American literary critic Harold Bloom once said, "Shakespeare will not make us better and will not make us worse, but he may allow us to overhear ourselves when we talk to ourselves." The Bard’s impact on modern literature can’t be denied, but to limit it to the written word would be an extreme disservice to countless other works of art inspired by his works.

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Thinking back on your youth can be a bit of a double-edged sword: one might enjoy reminiscing about our heyday and carefree years, but we might also end up remembering those embarrassing moments when inexperience got the best of us. In any case, the beauty of the phrase "salad days" lies in its ability to encompass both the comfort and the naivete of youth.

Shakespeare coined this expression in the first act of Antony and Cleopatra, when the Queen of the Nile looks back on her relationship with Julius Caesar saying, "My salad days, / When I was green in judgment...." While it is true that Shakespeare’s original meaning for the phrase was about youthful inexperience, currently, "salad days" is more commonly used to refer to someone’s prime.

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To be the butt of an innocent joke or prank is usually harmless. When done in good fun, it’s good to laugh at ourselves. Having said that, to be the laughing stock is an entirely different matter: This expression means to be subjected to general mockery or ridicule, most of the time at one’s expense.

The Bard knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote this line in The Merry Wives of Windsor. In the play, Sir Hugh Evans advises Dr Caius, "Pray you let us not be laughing stocks to other men’s humours." What’s so effective about this phrase is that it conjures up the image of medieval stocks, wooden restraining devices usually used for public embarrassment. In that sense, the ridicule of being the laughing stock could be considered equivalent to being publicly displayed for humiliation.

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No, we are not talking about The Hulk here, unless Marvel’s city-wrecking superhero is now fueled by jealousy instead of anger. "Green-eyed monster" alludes to both a physical manifestation of jealousy (as some sort of unmanageable creature) or someone who is so overridden by this nasty feeling that they lose control of themselves. Shakespeare used this expression in his play Othello: In it, the double-faced advisor Iago tries to make Othello doubt the faithfulness of his wife, and warns him, "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! / It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on."

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"To wear your heart on your sleeve" is a fairly common expression nowadays, and it is used to describe displaying intimate feelings openly to someone. While there is some debate as to where this expression comes from, the first recorded use comes (once again) from Othello: Curiously, a phrase as honest and sincere as this one comes from the duplicitous villain Iago, who says, "But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve / For daws to peck at: I am not what I am."

It is worth noting that the sleeve used here may not necessarily refer to a piece of cloth that covers our arm. Some linguists believe that the expression might originate from medieval jousting, where knights would wear a token of a lady of the court on their arm armor, known then as a sleeve.

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Contrary to popular belief, this expression does not come from chasing wild geese (or from the substantially scarier image of being chased by them). It refers to a type of horse race practiced in Elizabethan times, where a group of riders would follow and try to keep up with a single rider galloping ahead of them. The name comes from the shape the formation takes since it is similar to the pattern taken by geese in flight.

Shakespeare used this expression in Romeo and Juliet, where the character of Mercutio compares an exchange of jokes between Romeo and himself to a "wild goose chase" race. Mercutio states, "Nay, if our wits run the wild-goose chase, I am done; for thou / hast more of the wild goose in one of thy wits than, I am sure, I / have in my whole five."

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"Cry 'havoc!' And let slip the dogs of war!" This phrase has been endlessly repeated in several pieces of media, muttered by cold and heartless villains ranging from Star Trek to Superman. It’s almost funny how such a somber, heavy line has evolved up to the point of it becoming a bit of a corny cliche. Shakespeare uses this line in Julius Caesar as a way to convey the horrors and bloodshed of war when Mark Anthony instigates the Roman people to rise against Julius Caesar’s assassins.

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This one is a little bit baffling. You, like many others, might be wondering what’s the story behind this commonly-used idiom: We all know what it means, but since when is a doornail synonymous with death? Does that mean that the doornail was at one point alive? And, for that matter, why specifically a doornail? Is the way they move through the eternal, unchanging cycle of life and death truly the main difference between common nails and those specifically hammered into a door?

We might have gone a bit off track here. Going back to Shakespeare, the Bard made this expression popular in Henry IV Part 2, when Jack Cade complains about his hunger by saying, "I have eat no meat these five days; yet, come thou and thy five men, and if I do not leave you all as dead as a doornail." Some believe the expression comes from how doornails used in Shakespeare's times could not be retrieved after being hammered. Since those nails were left unusable, they were considered "dead."

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Shakespeare’s use of "In a Pickle" in The Tempest is considered the first recorded appearance of this expression. In the play, King Alonso asks his Trinculo, "How camest thou in this pickle?" and the jester, who is both drunk and in trouble, answers "I have been in such a pickle since I saw you last that, I fear me, I will never out of my bones. I shall not fear flyblowing.’

What Trinculo is saying here is that he is so drunk that his body will be well-preserved after his death, the same way brine or vinegar is used to preserve pickled food. While, nowadays, this expression is most commonly used to refer to an unpleasant situation or problem, "pickled" can also be used for someone who is extremely drunk.

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Another phrase incessantly repeated in romantic movies and books, the line "Love is blind" appears in three plays by Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice, Henry V, and The Two Gentlemen of Verona. In The Merchant of Venice, Jessica meets with her lover Lorenzo while disguised as a boy to trick her father, Shylock. Upon seeing Lorenzo, Jessica feels self-conscious about her appearance, but she later realizes that he won’t mind her clothes since he loves her. Jessica says "I am glad ’tis night, you do not look on me,/ for I am much ashamed of my exchange./ But love is blind, and lovers cannot see/ the pretty follies that themselves commit."

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It’s funny how one of the least commonly used expressions on this list comes straight from Shakespeare’s most famous speeches: Hamlet’s "to be or not to be" soliloquy. In this monologue, the prince of Denmark grimly ponders on what comes after death, and reflects: "To die, to sleep,/ To sleep, perchance to Dream; aye, there's the rub,/ for in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,/ when we have shuffled off this mortal coil,/ must give us pause."

Curiously, the expression is believed to originate from grass bowling, one of the favorite hobbies of the Elizabethan era. In this sport, an obstacle on the playing field, like a hill or a mound, would be called "a rub" since the bowl would be slowed down or deflected by rubbing against it. While Shakespeare included this phrase in other plays like The Tempest and King Lear, Hamlet’s iconic soliloquy is probably responsible for popularizing "That’s the rub" as a way to refer to an unavoidable problem.