If, in 2024, you rawdogged a flight, wore brat green, indulged in some looksmaxxing or called someone babygirl … you are right on trend, as all of these words and terms broke through this year.
However, if the above sentence makes no sense to you, you may still be in possession of a dumbphone.
Merriam-Webster’s dictionary estimates there are about 1m words in the English language, but that is still not quite enough words for gen-Z, whose vocabulary dominates the Guardian’s breakthrough words of 2024.
To be on the list a word or term needs to have appeared on the Guardian’s pages for the first time or shot up in popularity compared with its frequency in previous years.
It is safe to say that 2024 was particularly absurd: a sign, perhaps, that something had gone sideways was when “rawdogging” (original meaning: having sex without a condom) took to the skies. The word became a viral TikTok trend in 2024, encouraging people to abstain from entertainment on long-haul flights. That is no movies, no music, no reading, all in pursuit of mental growth and a zen state of mind.
Health experts began to ring the alarm on the trend as some took the challenge to extreme lengths and began abstaining from drinking water and trips to the loo.
“Looksmaxxing”, the act of maximising your physical attractiveness based on a set of rigid criteria, also increased in usage in 2024.
Previously confined to the shadows of online “incel” forums, the term – again popularised on TikTok – found a more mainstream audience of teenage boys but brought warnings from experts.
Another term, “boysober” – the decision by heterosexual women to eschew dates, sex and relationships – emerged for the first time and appears to have had its roots in the 4B movement in South Korea, before spreading to the US.
But if one trend marked 2024 – let me give you a hint, you are going to need some slime-green attire and a pack of Marlboros for this next bit – yes, it was “brat summer”.
The ubiquitous Charli XCX pop album also doubled as a lifestyle and aesthetic. “You’re just like that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes,” the singer declared as we all grappled to understand how to be brat.
But brat was not the only vibe of the year. In fact there were so many vibes going round that the word vibe became the vibe. Even economists jumped on the bandwagon, labelling the – incorrect – majority belief among Americans that the US was in recession, the “vibecession”.
Talking of recessions, in 2024 researchers claimed that if Taylor Swift were an economy, she would be larger than that of 50 (small) countries.
“Swiftmania” (for the brats among you) is the name given to the fan craze that continued as the year’s most successful artist brought her Eras tour to Europe. An ultimate vibe for hardcore fans also occurred in February when she was the subject of her very own ‘“Swiftposium”.
But it was not all about gen Z: business also had a look-in with crypto terms, in particular, hitting the big time as the markets responded to Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House.
Politics gave us the satisfying-sounding – but ultimately boring – term “persnuffle”, music gave us “femininomenon” and Robert F Kennedy, TikTok and conspiracists colluded to repopularise “unpasteurised”.
We know these things because we read them while “phubbing” (which also made a comeback this year, meaning to ignore people you’re with to spend time on a phone).
