Oxford Word of the Year: Brain Rot

Brain rot is a term that refers to the damage to an individual's cognitive or intellectual state by content that is easily consumed online and does not require mental effort. In short, it represents a person disconnecting from reality and living his life unaware and just going with the flow.

While words of the year used to indicate more positive trends, today negative themes that reflect the society and the mood of the period attract more attention. Oxford Dictionaries has selected words such as selfie (2013), post-truth (2016) and toxic (2018) in the past. Apart from this, other language institutions also announce their selections every year.

The phrase "brain rot" has increased in popularity by 230% in the past year. Other competing words included dynamic pricing, romantasy (romantic-fantasy fiction), and lore (the story of a subject). With these choices, Oxford aims to reflect not only linguistic trends but also social dynamics.

This word dates back to Henry David Thoreau's 1854 book Walden, and today it is frequently used on social media to describe times spent in "autopilot" mode.