Oxford University picks ‘brain rot’ as word of the year

MOSCOW: The Oxford University has chosen the connection of the twelvemonth by nationalist vote, and it is “brain rot”, reported Sputnik, quoting the Oxford University Press successful a statement.

The conception of encephalon rot (literally “brain decay”) is simply a slang word that the Oxford Dictionary defines arsenic “supposed deterioration of a person’s intelligence oregon intelligence state, particularly viewed arsenic a effect of overconsumption of worldly (now peculiarly online content) considered to beryllium trivial oregon unchallenging.”

The contention leafage says that the archetypal recorded usage of the connection was successful 1854 successful Henry David Thoreau’s publication Walden; or, Life successful the Woods. It is noted that implicit the twelvemonth (from 2023 to 2024), the frequence of usage of the look accrued by 230 per cent – the connection is utilized to explicit interest astir the consequences of excessive depletion of low-quality online content, particularly connected societal networks.

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More than 37,000 radical took portion successful the voting. The shortlist besides included the words “demure” (restrained), “dynamic pricing”, “lore” (a assemblage of cognition astir something), “romantasy” (romantic fantasy), and “slop” (low-quality worldly connected the Internet generated by artificial intelligence).

In 2023, the Oxford English Dictionary chose the connection of the twelvemonth for the archetypal clip done a nationalist vote, it was the slang look “goblin mode.” The dictionary defines goblin mode arsenic “a benignant of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, oregon greedy, typically successful a mode that rejects societal norms oregon expectations.”