At the end of the year, the English dictionaries hit us with words of 2023 thick and fast. In 2024, which ones do you think will stick?
Artificial intelligence (Collins) was the obvious choice. In 2023, this meant generative AI based on large language models you could ‘talk’ to, like ChatGPT (the Economist). But these technologies hallucinate (Cambridge), which means they make stuff up. So how do you distinguish between what’s artificial and what’s real, to find what’s authentic (Merriam-Webster)? Generative AI charmed a lot of people – did it have charisma, or rizz (Oxford)? But a lot of others worried about losing their jobs and the cost of living, or cozzie livs (Macquarie). The Germans went further and picked Krisenmodus, or crisis mode (Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache). You might relate to that: the Polish youth word of the year is rel (PWN).
The Institute for the Languages of Finland (Kotus) added five thousand words to their database in 2023. These ranged from ahneusinflaatio, or greedflation, to äänikloonaus, or voice cloning. See, Finnish is easy! I have two personal favourites from the Finnish list. Käärijänvihreä, or käärijä green is the neon shade worn by the Finns’ 2023 Eurovision candidate. Heviballetti, or heavy metal ballet, was born through a surprisingly successful collaboration between Black Sabbath and Birmingham Royal Ballet. I think those two will stick, but will they? We’ll find out this year.
Mystical dictionary in käärijä green from HDWallpapers.
Ridge Writing Retreats 