Top These Words

Who Knew, Did You?

That 2023 has 3 top words?

And they are all different

authentic, rizz and AI

Who selected the words?

Merriam-Webster, Inc.

Oxford University Press

Collins English Dictionary

Authentic was the top word of 2023 according to Merriam-Webster, America's oldest dictionary. The word is defined as for something we’re thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more than ever.

Merriam-Webster, Inc. is an American reference book publishing company well known for dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary publisher in the U.S. founded in 1831 as G & C Merriam Co by George and Charles Merriam in Springfield, MA. 

In 1843, after the death of American lexicographer and textbook pioneer Noah Webster, the company bought the rights to An American Dictionary of the English Language from Webster's estate. All Merriam-Webster dictionaries trace their lineage to this source. In 1964, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., acquired Merriam-Webster, Inc., as a subsidiary. In 1982, the company adopted its current name, Merriam-Webster, Inc.

In selecting its top word of the year, Merriam-Webster stated that while authentic is clearly a desirable quality it is hard to define and subject to debate adding that the word's popularity, highly searched before 2023 increased as the line between real and fake became blurred.

A top word runner-up was deepfake used to describe videos and photos that are digitally changed with AI. Other runners up were implode, coronation and dystopian.

Last year, the top word was gaslighting a term to describe manipulating a person to cause them to question their sanity for one's own advantage

Coincidentally, gas light was the title of a 1938 play by Patrick Hamilton. In 1940, a UK film version was released and in 1944, a US film of the same name was released starring Ingrid Bergman and won two Academy Awards.

Rizz was the 2023 top word according to The Oxford University Press (OUP). This internet slang term for style, charm, attractiveness and the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner. It's used extensively online on TikTok and has billions of views with hashtag rizz.

So, if you're good at chatting up or flirting with potential partners, you may already have rizz and not know it. It has ben used as a verb in expressions like to rizz up meaning to attract, seduce or chat up someone.

Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world, publishing in 70 languages and 190 countries. The first book was printed in Oxford in 1478 with the press officially granted the legal right to print books by a 1586 decree. It is the second oldest university press after Cambridge University Press founded in 1534.

The list was narrowed down in a public vote in late November, before Oxford lexicographers made the final decision. 

The other 3 top contenders were swiftie an enthusiastic fan of singer Taylor Swift), beige flag  (a character trait indicating a partner is boring or lacks originality) and situationship (a romantic or sexual relationship not considered formal or established). Still others in the running were parasocial, heat dome, de-influencing and prompt.

A short list of eight words selected by OUP language experts was put to a public vote in late November. That reduced the field to four, then experts made the final selection.These words may eventually be added to the dictionary after assessment of their longevity, frequency, and breadth of usage.

In 2022, the Oxford word of the year was goblin mode a slang term to describe self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly or greedy behavior. This term was popularized during and after the pandemic.

AI is the Collins Dictionary word of the year. The use of the word (strictly an initialism) has quadrupled over the past year. It's defined as an abbreviation for artificial intelligence: the modelling of human mental functions by computer programs.”

The Collins English Dictionary is a printed and online dictionary of English published by HarperCollins in Glasgow. The dictionary uses language research based on the Collins Corpus (an analytical database of English) which is continually updated and has over 4.5 billion words. The current edition published in August 2023 is the 14th. 

According to the publisher, AI was chosen as it has accelerated at such a fast pace and become the dominant conversation of 2023. The annual word of the year is selected by lexicographers monitoring a range of sources, including social media. 

The word of the year reflects preoccupations of the time. In 2022, the word was permacrisis in reference to seemingly constant upheavals in British politics. in 2021, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) reached its peak. In 2020, it wasn't surprising that lockdown was word of the year.

Other 2023 contenders for Collins word of the year included — Bazball (aggressive style of cricket, Debanking (act of depriving someone of banking facilities), Greedflation (using high inflation as excuse to raise prices to increase corporate profits), Nepo baby (someone seen as benefitting  from nepotism from famous parents), deinfluencing (warning social media to avoid certain products or lifestyle choices), Ulez (acronym for ultra low-emission zone).

Maybe, these top words were not new to all, but rizz was new to me, and, how can an abbreviation even be considered as a word? Language is ever-evolving, but maybe not always for the better or perhaps I'm more a traditionalist in this area.