This is Merriam-Webster's word of the year for 2023
No, it's not Moye Moye. Merriam-Webster has released its word of the year for 2023, and it is something that makes a lot of sense in this age of deepfakes and post-truths. It is none other than the word "authentic," which means to be true or original. People have looked up the meaning of this word on the company's website most times this year.
'We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity'
Peter Sokolowski, the editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster, shared with The Associated Press during a discussion that 2023 is witnessing "a kind of crisis of authenticity." He added that he and his team do not zero in on the reasons behind a word being searched increasingly but instead track lookup spikes and global events that are correlated.
2022's word of the year
Last year, Merriam-Webster selected "gaslighting" as its word of the year, citing the word had become "a ubiquitous term in the age of misinformation." It is the practice of misleading someone for one's own advantage. The word "authentic" in 2023 follows a similar path.
There wasn't spike but constancy with word 'authentic'
Sokolowski also revealed that the team didn't notice any boost or spike in the lookup for the word "authentic." However, there was a bizarre constancy with its search throughout the year. He cited several potential reasons concerning this constancy. For instance, OpenAI's ChatGPT generative AI model triggered a lot of conversations in 2023 that involved the word.
Other reasons include Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, Sam Smith
The popularity of the word "authentic" also had to do with conversations about public figures like Taylor Swift, Elon Musk, Sam Smith, and Lainey Wilson. According to Merriam-Webster, headlines like "Three Ways To Tap Into Taylor Swift's Authenticity And Build An Eras-Like Workplace" have fueled the search for this word. Musk's Twitter transitioning to X has also contributed to the same.
'Rizz,' 'deepfake,' 'coronation' are some other words standing out
Besides "authentic," Merriam-Webster also released a list of some other words that remained a hot topic of discussion throughout this year. These include words like "rizz," "deepfake," "coronation," "dystopia," "EGOT," "X," "implode," "doppelganger," "covenant," "indict," "elemental," "kibbutz," and "deadname." This year, the company's data filters scraped evergreen words like "love" and "affect vs effect," which are ever-high in search results.
Why these words are trending in 2023
Rizz is slang for "romantic appeal or charm," which the dictionary added to its list in September this year and has been searched online a lot. Kibbutz is related to the search "communal farm or settlement in Israel," which spiked during the ongoing Gaza conflict between Israel and Hamas. While "implode" concerns the ill-fated Titan submersible, "deadname" relates to the onslaught of LGBTQ+ rights.
Other words trended because...
"Coronation" was searched to know more about King Charles III, while "deepfake" is about recent AI-generated misleading pictures and videos. "Dystopia" relates to climate change, "covenant" to the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, and "indict" to felony charges against Donald Trump.
