'Brain rot': Oxford's 2024 word of the year dates back to 1854

The term beat five others on the shortlist, including 'demure' and 'lore'

Brain rot, linked to mindlessly scrolling, has been named Oxford's Word of the Year 2024. Photo: Pexels

You might have heard of the term 'brain rot' as an allusion to mindless scrolling in the voids of social media. The term, mostly used by young people (Generation Z and Generation Alpha), has become common use in the past year.

The term has now been crowned Oxford Word of the Year 2024, after a public vote among 37,000 people. The term is defined as the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging”.

While it has recently gained prominence among young people, the term was first found in 1854 in David Thoreau’s book Walden. The author criticised society for favouring simple ideas over complex ones and saw a general decline in intellectual effort.

“While England endeavours to cure the potato rot, will not any endeavour to cure the brain-rot – which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” Thoreau wrote in the book.

The term has taken new significance in the digital age today. It is mostly used in the context of the overconsumption of low-quality content on the internet.

“Looking back at the Oxford Word of the Year over the past two decades, you can see society’s growing preoccupation with how our virtual lives are evolving, the way internet culture is permeating so much of who we are and what we talk about,” says Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford Languages.

'Rizz' was last year's winner, and he notes how “language is increasingly formed, shaped and shared within online communities,” given that the term is also mostly used on social media.

“It feels like a rightful next chapter in the cultural conversation about humanity and technology. It’s not surprising that so many voters embraced the term, endorsing it as our choice this year,” Grathwohl adds. He also finds it “fascinating” that the Gen Z and Gen Alpha communities are mostly responsible for its current usage.

“These communities have amplified the expression through social media channels, the very place said to cause ‘brain rot’,” he says. “It demonstrates a somewhat cheeky self-awareness in the younger generations about the harmful impact of social media that they’ve inherited.”

Word of the Year runners-up

Five other words were part of this year's shortlisted selection, including the meme-worthy word 'demure'.

It is an adjective coined in 1377 and refers to someone who is “reserved or restrained in appearance or behaviour.” However, its recent popularity is thanks to a viral video on TikTok by Jools Lebron, whose phrase “very demure, very mindful” became a term linked to careful self-presentation.

In a series of videos, Lebron explains, with a hint of satire, how to apply a “very demure, very mindful” approach to a number of everyday situations. This includes how to dress at work, how to interact with people at the airport, and how to present oneself in social situations generally.

Other words in the shortlist include 'dynamic pricing', 'lore', 'romantasy' and 'slop'.

Other dictionaries' words of the year

While Oxford's crowning phrase has a negative connotation, Cambridge Dictionary's Word of the Year 2024 had a more positive edge: 'manifest'.

The word was looked up over 130,00 times this year. Cambridge defines it as “to show something clearly, through signs or actions,” but it's often used in the self-help world to mean to create one's own destiny but clearly outlining and focusing on one's goals.

Dictionary.com went with Oxford's runner-up, 'demure'. It wrote: “The word experienced a meteoric rise in usage in 2024. Between January and the end of August, this term saw a nearly 1200% increase in usage in digital web media alone.”