Dictionary.com's 2024 word of the year has been announced, and it's not ‘brainrot’ or ‘brat’
Lexicographers analysed a large amount of data to select word, including newsworthy headlines, social media trends, and search engine results.
Dictionary.com has announced that “demure” is the 2024 word of the year. The term has been popularly used on social media in recent months after being sparked by TikToker Jools Lebron’s viral video where the phrase “very demure, very mindful” was used.
The site’s lexicographers analysed a large amount of data to select the 2024 Word of the Year, including newsworthy headlines, social media trends, and search engine results. This year, the word demure experienced a “meteoric rise in usage,” the site said, with the term seeing a nearly 1200% increase in usage in digital web media alone between January and the end of August.
What does ‘demure’ mean?
According to Dictionary.com, “Though the term demure has traditionally been used to describe those who are reserved, quiet, or modest, a new usage has spread through social media — one used to describe refined and sophisticated appearance or behavior in various contexts, such as at work or on a plane. This increased focus on public appearance and behavior comes at a time when employees are increasingly returning to offices after hybrid remote work following the pandemic.”
The TikTok video that made the word popular showed Lebron, 31, who identifies as transgender, sitting in a car with makeup on. The caption reads, “How to be demure … at the workplace.” Lebron then goes on to share her tips.
“You see how I do my make-up for work? Very demure, very mindful,” Lebron says. “I don’t come to work with a green cut crease. I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much, I’m very mindful while I’m at work.”
“See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job. A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like my Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma — not demure,” the TikToker adds. “I'm very modest. I'm very mindful.”
The clip soon went viral, and many TikTokers reshared it, and also used Lebron’s voiceover uttering the phrase “very demure” in other videos. The video has since attracted 5 million likes on the platform.
Meanwhile, several other words made it to Dictionary.com’s 2024 Word of the Year shortlist, including “brainrot,” “brat,” “weird,” “Midwest nice,” and “extreme weather.”