When I heard that the smarties who run Merriam-Webster had chosen a word of the year for 2023, it never occurred to me that they’d put together a thoughtful and insightful article about the words that were looked up the most this year.
What a terrific surprise. (And aren’t THOSE rarer than chicken’s teeth, as a very old saying goes?)
As my daughter so eloquently put it during a family dispute this year: “It’s important for the lexicon to reflect our changing realities.”
Nowhere is change more evident than in the way we use language. And as any adult can attest, it’s becoming increasingly hard to keep up with the mutations the kids are making to language on the daily. (A phrase I still love though I’m sure anyone under 20 would roll their eyes at me for using it.)
So I offer you Merriam-Webster’s take on the changes and emphases they’ve noted this past year. I hope you find it as fascinating as I did.
Yes, it validated a lot of the words I looked up this year and have been hearing - I'm shocked that cozy wasn't on the list, I bet it will be for 2024
I feel so much smarter after reading this!