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.

REDISCOVER EVERYDAY PHRASES

Do you Know the Fascinating Origins of These 10 Slang Words?

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Think about how boring our vocabulary would be if we didn’t have a more laid-back, informal register on which we could fall back. Most of us don’t even realize how much slang we use in basically every conversation we have. What most of us don’t do is take a moment to look into the origins of those informal terms that we use daily. Well, we decided to research the astonishing beginnings of these ten slang words and phrases. Ever wondered why we decided that besides meaning cow meat, the word "beef" could be used as a synonym for a dispute? Keep on reading and find out!

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Let’s start this article the same way millions of people start their day. Whether it’s with a piping hot mug fresh out of your coffee maker, or a quick cup from your favorite barista on your way to work, a nice cup of joe is that magical fuel that helps so many of us go through our day. That being said, doesn’t that nickname seem a little strange to you? Have you ever wondered what’s the connection between a cup of coffee and the shortening of the name Joseph?

There are several different theories concerning this nickname. The most popular one states that it comes from WW1 Secretary of Navy Josephus Daniels, who enacted a ban on alcohol consumption on all U.S. Navy ships. According to this theory, enraged sailors started using the Cup of Joe expression since coffee was the strongest drink they could have. Another theory believes that Joe is a shortening of "Jamoke", a 19th-century word for coffee.

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Doing something in an above board manner means doing so in a completely honest and open way. Some believe that the phrase might come from the world of sailing since the best hiding place for contraband would be below the ship’s board: being above board could then be understood as the exact opposite. However, the first recorded appearances of above board date back to the 17th century, and they seem to suggest it actually references a game table (also known as a board). Keeping your cards above the board would show your companions that you are playing fairly and by the rules.

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We’ll try to go through this entry with the least amount of cheesy puns possible. A little smirk or a quick chuckle after hearing a bad joke from a special someone might prove how cheesygoing you are. Heck, corny jokes aren’t just reserved for your dad: Maybe a cheesy, little pun might turn a date from just gouda into simply brie-lliant.

The origins of this expression are still not completely clear. The earliest usage of cheesy comes from the end of the 19th century, as slang used by U.S. students to describe an ignorant person. Perhaps the meaning we now use might come from the United Kingdom, where cheesy used to mean something "showy".

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The term flicks has always been associated with going to the cinema. We’ve all referred to an adrenaline-fueled movie as an "action flick" or a bloodcurdling, exciting movie as a "scary flick." In fact, the term is so heavily associated with going to the movies that the minds behind Netflix chose it as inspiration for their company’s name.

Before the term flicks, early films from the 1900s were known as flickers. Some believe that this name comes from the first Nickelodeon theaters, since their projectors would "flicker" through images while making a distinctive sound. Another theory states that it comes from primitive projectors, which definitively weren’t as good as the modern pieces of equipment we are now used to. These rudimentary machines would sometimes shimmer, which made the images on the screen slightly flicker.

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To get down to brass tacks is an extremely useful phrase if you feel someone is talking in a roundabout way and avoiding the point, since it means ignoring all secondary matters and focusing on the most important parts of an issue. Having said that, we are left to wonder how small pins specifically made of brass reflect the meaning of this term.

While most agree that it originated in the 19th century, linguists debate whether it comes from the world of upholstery (where brass tacks are regularly used), or if maybe it is derived from tacks used by shoemakers, among other possible origins. Another explanation states that it might come from Cockney rhyming, since the words facts and tacks sound very similar. But, if we get down to brass tacks (see what we did there?), the truth is that the origins of this phrase are still a mystery.

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The origins of this phrase might come as a bit of a surprise. While it means to innovate or to push boundaries, whenever you hear someone is pushing the envelope you might think of shady characters pushing envelopes filled with important documents across the table of a dimly lit room. What’s more interesting is that investigating the origins of this phrase reveals that it doesn’t even refer to a paper envelope at all.

American author Tom Wolfe brought this phrase into the spotlight with The Right Stuff, his 1979 book about the space program. Wolfe kept hearing this phrase among scientists and engineers who were describing something that was performing exceedingly well. The envelope they were referring to, however, was not a container of letters, but rather a mathematical envelope. When calculating curves on graphing paper, the shape made by the drawn lines is fairly similar to an envelope: therefore, something that pushes the envelope would be something that’s challenging the margins of what is expected.

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Besides being the title of an excellent Marvin Gaye song, the phrase I heard it through the grapevine is basically the more mature, sophisticated version of A Little Birdie Told Me, used by every parent dealing with lying children. While the image of a grapevine invokes whispers secretly heard between branches and leaves, it actually comes from the first messages sent through telegraphs. Since the miles of telegraph lines set in the 1800s resembled grapevine lines, people started to say "heard it through the grapevine" to mean something that arrived through the telegraph.

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Sadly, having beef with someone doesn’t always mean sitting down with a friend to enjoy a lovely barbeque. This common slang term is used to describe a dispute or disagreement between two or more people. You might even remember a series of hilarious ads run in the 80s by Wendy’s, in which they disparaged their competition’s products with the phrase "Where’s the Beef?"

The first usage of beef as a derogatory term comes from the 19th century when it was used as a synonym for complaint or grievance. It is believed that its origins can be traced back to a British expression for alarm, where beef is used as a rhyming slang for the word "thief."

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Alongside beef, having a big slice of humble pie is not as delicious as it sounds. This expression is used whenever someone has to embarrassingly admit their mistakes and apologize for them. And while you might think that the "humble" in this pie comes from the modesty of admitting our mistakes, the actual origins of this idiom are slightly more disgusting. Humble comes from the 14th-century word "numbles", which is a term used to describe the heart, liver, and other entrails of animals, particularly deer. A humble pie was, as you might have guessed, a pie filled with these entrails, usually eaten by servants or hunters.

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We’ll end this list in a sort of meta way. We all know that slang is used for vocabulary used in an informal register, but have you ever stopped to think about why we call these words and phrases slang? While it does seem fitting that such an odd-sounding word is used to describe these pieces of unconventional vocabulary, tracing back the etymology of this word might be tricky.

Slang was used in the Scots dialect of the 19th century to describe "gossip or idle chat", while it meant "impertinence" in the Northern English regions. The exact origin of the word can’t be traced, but some believe it might be derived from the Scandinavian word sling, which means "to throw". Some linguists believe that slang might be derived from it, since the quick and unconcerned way in which we use slang might resemble "throwing" words.