Sydney:

Australia’s quasi-official Macquarie Dictionary has picked “enshittification” as the word of 2024, tapping into a growing sense that once-great digital services are bad and getting worse.

“ENSHITTIFICATION — Noun. Colloquial, 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.” 

The word, coined by writer Cory Doctorow, refers to a process in which apps or digital platforms start off as incredibly useful, but gradually worsen as they seek to make a profit.

Social media platforms like X and ride-sharing app Uber are frequently cited examples, which started off offering information or bargains but gradually gouged customers or cut back services. 

Doctorow explains enshittification as the reason why Facebook users’ feeds fill up with junk, Google search is loaded with ads and sponsored content, and why Amazon promotes cheap, badly made products no matter what a customer searches for.

Enshittification beat out words like “brainrot”, “overtourism” and “rawdogging”.

It was chosen as word of the year by the dictionary’s committee of experts, but was also voted “People’s Choice Winner”.

It is “a very basic Anglo-Saxon term wrapped in affixes which elevate it to being almost formal; almost respectable,” the committee said.  

“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 committee said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Online dictionary platform Dictionary.com has very mindfully chosen their word of the year as “demure”. 

The word is a part of a phrase that became a viral sensation in August. It was brought into vogue by TikToker Jools Lebron whose phrase “very demure, very mindful” whose series of videos were later replicated by other influencers and creators.

According to Dictionary.com Demure saw a 200 times increase in searches and a 1200% increase online. It is defined as “characterized by shyness and modesty; reserved,” but it means something quite different when it comes to the usage on the internet.

It means being confident quietly, or an action otherwise submissive that gives confidence to a person or is empowering.

Jools Lebron, who identifies as a transgender woman, said TikTok has changed her life. “One day, I was playing cashier and making videos on my break, and now I’m flying across countries to host events, and I’m gonna be able to finance the rest of my transition,” she added.

The phrase spread like forest fire on the internet after she made videos on how to be demure and mindful at the airport, at workplace, at a grocery store, or any situation one finds themselves in.

After the trend went viral, many other trans women joined in the trend, urging their followers and subscribers to act “mindful” and “demure”.

“See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job,” she said in a TikTok titled, “demure and modest and respectful at the workplace,” which gained over 54 million views.

This trend also roped in celebrities like Jenna Ortega, Jennifer Lopez, Penn Badgley, Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis. 

Apart from the word ‘demure’, Dictionary.com also announced their Word of the Year shortlist, with words like Brainrot, Brat, Extreme Weather, Midwest Nice, and Weird in the list.

Oxford University Press has also opened voting for its word that encapsulates 2024. The contenders are: slop, romantasy, lore, brainrot, demure and dynamic pricing and Cambridge Dictionary officially picked its Word of the Year as ‘Manifest’.