The colloquial noun, first coined by Canadian author Cory Doctorow in 2022, got the nod over words including “rawdogging” and “brainrot” from both the dictionary’s committee and the public, who named it the People’s Choice.
The dictionary issued a language warning as it announced this year’s winner, stressing in a statement that it “acknowledges all forms and registers of Australian English, which occasionally includes taboo words and meanings”.
The committee said the winner is a “very basic Anglo-Saxon term wrapped in affixes which elevate it to being almost formal; almost respectable.
“This word captures what many of us feel is happening to the world and to so many aspects of our lives at the moment.”
The dictionary defined the word as: “The gradual deterioration of a service or product brought about by a reduction in the quality of service provided, especially of an online platform, and as a consequence of profit-seeking.”
Doctorow described this deterioration as a three-part process.
“First, platforms are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves.
“It’s frustrating. It’s demoralizing. It’s even terrifying.”
Special mentions from the committee went to “rawdogging” – the act of undertaking a long-haul flight with no entertainment – and “right to disconnect” – a law which grants employees the right to not work or be contacted about work during non-work hours.
The People’s Choice honourable mentions meanwhile went to “brainrot,” a term which describes content considered to be of low quality in terms of intellectual stimulation, as well as to “social battery,” a supposed energy reserve someone has for engaging in social interactions.
Macquarie Dictionary began naming a word of the year in 2006. This is only the third time that the same word was named by both the People’s Choice and the Committee’s Choice.
