The public has voted, and a winner has been decided! We’re looking all the words chosen by the various dictionary bodies, and counting down our Words of the Week of the Year.
And there’s a very special interview with author, blogger, activist, and inventor of words Cory Doctorow.
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Show notes
The Collins Word of the Year 2023 Is… AIhttps://www.collinsdictionary.com/woty
AI named word of the year by Collins Dictionaryhttps://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-67271252
The Matildas waltz in as Australia’s Word of the Yearhttps://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/the-matildas-waltz-in-as-australia’s-word-of-the-year
‘Matilda’ named Australia’s 2023 word of the year in nod to Tillies’ triumphshttps://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/nov/15/matilda-australia-2023-word-of-the-year-womens-world-cup
Did you have a choccie bickie this arvo? A quantitative look at Australian hypocoristicshttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0388000110000987
Waltzing Matilda by A B Paterson, D Digbyhttps://www.harpercollins.com.au/9780207170980/waltzing-matilda/
waltzing Matilda: to waltz Matilda | Meanings and Origins of Australian Words and Idiomshttps://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/centres/andc/meanings-origins/w
[PDF] OzWords, May 1999: Chasing Our Unofficial Anthem: Who Was Matilda? Why Did She Waltz?https://slll.cass.anu.edu.au/sites/default/files/andc/Ozwords%20May%201999.pdf
The Dictionary.com Word of the Year is hallucinate. https://content.dictionary.com/word-of-the-year-2023/
Dictionary.com’s word of the year is a common one. But it doesn’t mean what you think https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/12/us/dictionary-2023-word-hallucinate-cec/index.html
Cambridge Dictionary names ‘Hallucinate’ Word of the Year 2023https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cambridge-dictionary-names-hallucinate-word-of-the-year-2023
‘Hallucinate’ chosen as Cambridge dictionary’s word of the yearhttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/nov/15/hallucinate-cambridge-dictionary-word-of-the-year
Not hallucination. Not fabrication. Not confabulation. We need a word for when LLMs make things up. The word shouldn't imply conscious experience or intent.Discussion with @khademinori and ChatGPT4 helped me find one candidate: "concoction."— Anna Mills, annamillsoer.bsky.social, she/her (@EnglishOER) December 12, 2023
Merriam-Webster’s word of the year definitely wasn’t picked by AIhttps://www.npr.org/2023/11/27/1215372795/merriam-webster-word-of-the-year-2023-authentic
Announcing the Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year 2023https://www.macquariedictionary.com.au/blog/article/913/
Cozzie livs: light-hearted term for cost-of-living crisis named Macquarie dictionary word of the yearhttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/nov/28/cozzie-livs-light-hearted-term-for-cost-of-living-crisis-named-macquarie-dictionary-word-of-the-year
Oxford Word of the Year 2023https://languages.oup.com/word-of-the-year/2023/
Rizz, the word of the year, explainedhttps://www.vox.com/culture/23989120/rizz-definition-oxford-word-of-the-year-colloquial
In gloomy mood, Germany picks ‘crisis mode’ as word of the yearhttps://www.reuters.com/world/europe/gloomy-mood-germany-picks-crisis-mode-word-year-2023-12-08/
“Are”, la palabra del año 2023 en Japónhttps://www.nippon.com/es/japan-topics/c03836/
Talk of taxes spurs choice for Japan’s kanji of the yearhttps://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2023/12/12/japan/japan-kanji-of-2023/
GPT è la parola dell’anno in Svizzerahttps://www.rsi.ch/info/svizzera/GPT-è-la-parola-dell’anno-in-Svizzera–2002138.html
“Décombres” est le mot de l’année 2023 pour la Suisse romandehttps://www.rts.ch/info/culture/14504928-decombres-est-le-mot-de-lannee-2023-pour-la-suisse-romande.html
‘Monsterbank’ and ‘rubble’ named Swiss Words of the Yearhttps://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/society/-monsterbank–and–rubble–named-swiss-words-of-the-year/49012914
Euskaltzaindia and UZEI choose “zerrenda” as the Basque word of the yearhttps://www.lavanguardia.com/local/paisvasco/20231215/9453582/euskaltzaindia-uzei-eligen-zerrenda-palabra-euskera-ano-agenciaslv20231215.amp.html
[PDF] Hostile Epistemology by C. Thi Nguyenhttps://philpapers.org/archive/NGUHEL.pdf
Wikipedia Editor Who First Noted Henry Kissinger’s Death Has Become an ‘Instant Legend’https://www.vice.com/en/article/5d9qeb/wikipedia-editor-who-first-noted-henry-kissingers-death-has-become-an-instant-legend
Wikipedia editor "Asticky" edited Henry Kissinger's article at 8:46 ET and then changed her userpage to this (with the edit summary "lmao") pic.twitter.com/4QjoX7KARW— depths of wikipedia (@depthsofwiki) November 30, 2023
Enshittification | Wikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification
Social Quitting | Cory Doctorowhttps://doctorow.medium.com/social-quitting-1ce85b67b456
When Big Brands Stopped Spending On Digital Ads, Nothing Happened. Why?https://www.forbes.com/sites/augustinefou/2021/01/02/when-big-brands-stopped-spending-on-digital-ads-nothing-happened-why/
On Bullshit | Harry G. Frankfurthttps://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691122946/on-bullshit
The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right | Atul Gawandehttps://atulgawande.com/book/the-checklist-manifesto/
Bonus supplementary materialStudy: Why Wikipedia is the Last Good Website | Rebecca Watson
Transcript
Coming soon.
https://becauselanguage.com/89-words-of-the-week-of-the-year-2023/