According to Oxford University Press, which publishes the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word ‘brain rot’ is defined as “the perceived deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual condition” as it relates to excessive use of internet content without much explanation. – like TikTok videos.
Brain rot is also the word of the year for 2024, given its rise in popular culture this year. As the New York Times explains, the agency is examining “about 26 billion words” in media across the English-speaking world to identify “the sentiments and conversations that have changed 2024.”
Note that brain rot does not appear in the OED. And ‘rizz’ or ‘goblin mode,’ which won as the word of the year in 2023 and 2022, respectively. It seems that, despite their recognition by Oxford University Press (the publishing house of the University of Oxford), they have not shown the continued and widespread use that the editors of the OED wanted to see first.
They may have to wait a long time. Among the OED’s newest additions is ‘tech-savvy,’ whose first known use was in the 1980s.
