I was today years old when I learned that dictionary committees play favourites. It’s an odd thing to know because I don’t want to disagree with a dictionary; it feels wrong. With that being said, I am an all knowing entity so they can play their sus game of clickbait definitions however they like (hook, line, and sinker🙏).
Oxford Dictionary named “rage bait” as its Word of the Year on Sunday.
Collins Dictionary chose “vibe coding,” a form of software development that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to turn natural language into computer code.
Cambridge Dictionary settled on “parasocial,” referencing the relationships people form online with someone they don’t know, as their words of the year.
– Issy Ronald for CNN https://www.rnz.co.nz/life/culture/oxford-s-word-of-the-year-2025-is-utterly-infuriating
Casper Grathwohl, President of Oxford Languages, said in a statement;
“These words don’t just define trends; they reveal how digital platforms are reshaping our thinking and behaviour.”
. . . I have to disagree with Mr Grathwohl on the second part of his statement (rant incoming); the only things that new words are revealing is our innate ability to adapt to new methods of communication, and adapt language itself, through the exact same facilities (thinking and behaviour) we have always had and always will. His statement is the equivalent of me saying, ‘muscle memory isn’t just repetition stored as procedural memory, it’s reshaping our muscles and memory. No. Ephemeral things and spaces don’t define “our” human nature or “our thinking and behaviour”. Type shit (word of the year 2026, screenshot this). His projection is in a similar vein as, supposed experts blaming adolescent violence on video games, as if by announcing one example (a dictionary’s favourite word, say) gives someone a faux credential to say what’s happening to all of us.
Here’s my overall take on words; communicating new concepts and ideas, or even old ones renewed with fresh word combinations, is fun! (see: rage bait / vibe coding /parasocial / aura farming / biohacking / brain rot) People being clever is where the focus of diction should be directed, not on the vagaries of digital platforms, which is a catch-all term, and its usage in the statement is similar to the operative word “reshaping,” it may be fancy to use, but it’s a nothingburger of a word. Lazy statement, Mr Casper Grathwohl, but thank you, LITB needed this.
If there are no hard feelings between us. . . . Ahem; I would like to propose a new word, to hopefully, one day be recognised by a dictionary:
lit-b /lɪtbiː/
noun
- a person deemed to be babelicious who is also an avid reader.
- someone who’s name features on the weblog lit-b.com
verb
- provide an attractive person with confirmation that a particular action taken was lit.
adjective
- (of a person or their behaviour) down-to-earth and unconventional in a favourable way.
- eclecticism mistaken as obsessiveness and/or perversion.
Yeah . . . (☞ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)☞ Word things is what I do.💪
lit-b.com 