Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse: January 19, 2025

Issue 142

Hello, Muse Readers!

Last month, the individuals who compile the Oxford English Dictionary (aka lexicographers) chose their “word of the year” for 2024. Language is studied each year by these lexicographers, who analyze word usage and choose the word or expression that best reflects the state of the world in that given year. Past winners have included “rizz,” “goblin mode,” “vax,” “vape,” and “selfie.” What is 2024’s word of the year? The winner is “brain rot.” Remember that intro we wrote for the Muse several issues ago on the epidemic of forgetfulness? It dovetails beautifully with brain rot!

Brain rot triumphed over these other popular words in 2024: “lore,” “demure,” “romantasy,” and “slop.” In part, brain rot can be defined as the deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state as a result of the overconsumption of online content which is trivial or unchallenging. The first usage of this term is surprisingly 170 years ago in Walden by Henry David Thoreau, where he states:

W…