The word “brat” has been chosen as the Collins Dictionary word of the year for 2024.
Organisers said the word describes a person “characterised by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude”, and said it “rapidly became the aesthetic movement of the summer”.
They said the movement is inspired by the Charli XCX album of that name. “More than a hugely successful album, ‘brat’ is a cultural phenomenon that has resonated with people globally and ‘brat summer’ established itself as an aesthetic and a way of life,” they said.
The lexicographers at Collins Dictionary monitor the 20 billion-word Collins Corpus which draws from a range of media sources, including social media, to create the annual list of new and notable words.
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The words are designed to “reflect our ever-evolving language and the preoccupations of those who use it”.
Another word on this year’s list underlines the role of female music icons in shaping popular culture. “Era” – inspired by Taylor Swift’s hugely successful Eras Tour – is now widely used to describe “a period of one’s life or career that is of a distinctive character”, organisers said.
Despite nearly half of the world’s population voting in an election this year, only one election-related word has made it onto this year’s word list.
The word “supermajority” was defined as “a large majority in a legislative assembly that enables a government to pass laws without effective scrutiny”. It saw a sharp increase in usage during and following the UK general election in July.
Younger generations have coined some eye-catching new words in the language, in addition to giving a fresh take to existing words.
As well as “yapping” to each other at length, there has been much discussion of “looksmaxxing” on social media, which organisers defined as “attempting to maximize the attractiveness of one’s physical appearance”.
For some, this may seem a bit “delulu”, which also makes the list, and is defined as a slang term for “utterly mistaken or unrealistic in one’s ideas or expectations”.
Collins managing director Alex Beecroft said: “While ‘supermajority’ does the heavy lifting in a year of political upheaval in the UK and around the world, the big disrupters in language have come from different sources.
“With many of this year’s notable words being popularised by generations Z and Alpha, we can confidently say this is the most ‘brat’ word of the year list ever.”
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