Merriam-Webster's Word For 2023 Is 'Authentic' (apnews.com) 45
On Monday, Merriam-Webster announced its word of the year is "authentic -- the term for something we're thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more than ever." The Associated Press reports: Authentic cuisine. Authentic voice. Authentic self. Authenticity as artifice. Lookups for the word are routinely heavy on the dictionary company's site but were boosted to new heights throughout the year, editor at large Peter Sokolowski told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. "We see in 2023 a kind of crisis of authenticity," he said ahead of Monday's announcement of this year's word. "What we realize is that when we question authenticity, we value it even more."
Sokolowski and his team don't delve into the reasons people head for dictionaries and websites in search of specific words. Rather, they chase the data on lookup spikes and world events that correlate. This time around, there was no particularly huge boost at any given time but a constancy to the increased interest in "authentic." [...] "Can we trust whether a student wrote this paper? Can we trust whether a politician made this statement? We don't always trust what we see anymore," Sokolowski said. "We sometimes don't believe our own eyes or our own ears. We are now recognizing that authenticity is a performance itself."
There's "not false or imitation: real, actual," as in an authentic cockney accent. There's "true to one's own personality, spirit or character." There's "worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact." There's "made or done the same way as an original." And, perhaps the most telling, there's "conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features."
Sokolowski and his team don't delve into the reasons people head for dictionaries and websites in search of specific words. Rather, they chase the data on lookup spikes and world events that correlate. This time around, there was no particularly huge boost at any given time but a constancy to the increased interest in "authentic." [...] "Can we trust whether a student wrote this paper? Can we trust whether a politician made this statement? We don't always trust what we see anymore," Sokolowski said. "We sometimes don't believe our own eyes or our own ears. We are now recognizing that authenticity is a performance itself."
There's "not false or imitation: real, actual," as in an authentic cockney accent. There's "true to one's own personality, spirit or character." There's "worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact." There's "made or done the same way as an original." And, perhaps the most telling, there's "conforming to an original so as to reproduce essential features."
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Do conservatives ever stop thinking about trans people?
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The word for 2024 will be... (Score:2)
Unoriginal.
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In a time... (Score:3)
Of personal branding and mass influencers, I think we can bury the concept of authentic altogether.
So what is the end game for simulacra?
Is this for real? (Score:1)
Asking for a friend^H^H^H^H^Hcompeting dictionary company.
The only "authentic" thing most produce (Score:1)
Is brown and smelly and not normally shared publicly, save in large cities on sidewalks...
I figured it would be fuck off (Score:2)
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Word of the Day is Pathetic (Score:2, Flamebait)
These are the people who change their definitions of words when there's a culture war argument going on online (to benefit the fantasy-thinking side usually, and gaslight the other).
They wouldn't know Authentic if it bit them in the rump.
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When was language ever static? Terms come and go, meanings change along with the times. When was the last time the word gay was used to describe a happy person?
Re:Word of the Day is Pathetic (Score:4, Interesting)
Probably in the December 1877 issue of the Pennsylvania School Journal, when the lyrics to "Deck the halls" were modified to eliminate the references to drinking and replaced them with:
Deck the halls with boughs of holly,
'Tis the season to be jolly,
Don we now our gay apparel,
Troll the ancient Christmas carol,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
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Troll the ancient Christmas carol
Well, they sure did...
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Interesting use of the word "troll" to mean "wonder". Like gay, I guess the meaning has changed since the lyrics were written.
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The Flinstones, 1960s TV (Score:1)
At least on the surface, "have a gay old time" was not a reference to what many people were probably thinking.
Call it "plausible deniability."
As for language being static: For centuries, Latin was considered a "dead" language, yet it was still used for certain legal, religious, and ceremonial matters.
cambridge word of year is 'hallucinate' (Score:3)
" ‘Hallucinate’ chosen as Cambridge dictionary’s word of the year"
https://www.theguardian.com/bo... [theguardian.com]
AIthentic definition (Score:1)
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That's when you cook noodles so they still have a bit of a bite.
My search engine told me so, and who am I to question it? If I knew anything, I wouldn't have to use one, duh!
50 years from now... (Score:2)
... people in the U.S. will pay top dollar for authentic "Made in China" appliances. Mostly because all you'll be able to get, thanks to trade barriers, is Made in America" crap that falls apart one week after the warranty runs out. :)
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Yeah, they'll reminisce about the good old days when you could get Chinese quality products that lasted whole two weeks past warranty.
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I use to be all about Made in American. On the surface that's still a great thought but now I won't waste time with an American car at all. I've spent much more money trying to keep chevrolets running then I've ever spent keeping my hondas going. I get better fuel economy with my hondas and they have fewer problems and seem to last longer.
Half my family loves their fords and the other half loves their chevys. I find it ironic, since my mom's late model camero had problems and she had to sue the dealer to ge
I canâ(TM)t imagine a more inauthentic word (Score:1)
Weak
Well that's genuine! (Score:2)
I'm telling you, man, this is really, really genuine.
What's with the spam lately? (Score:2)
I'll soon have to withdraw my kind offer for free web pentests (along with the posting of findings for public consumption) here if this keeps going, I do have a life, ya know?
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Since you are getting out of the free pentest business, can I interest you in a career in helping people sort out the real Nigerian Princes from the fake ones?
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On a serious note, the spam load on Firehose [slashdot.org] is way down from a year or two ago. Well, it's probably not "way down" on the "incoming" side, but the human- or non-human filters are doing a much better job of killing it before I ever see it. For example, there are only 5 surviving spams in in the last few hours right now. A year or two ago, there
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Oh, that one is easy. Just assume it to be fake, the false positives are statistically irrelevant.
What's this? (Score:2)
The winner for "words that lost all meaning by abuse from marketing"?
What's next year? "Value"?
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People have to look that one up? (Score:2)
OK maybe for ESL students or something,
but that's hardly an indicator.
Anyone else not know the word?
last year (Score:2)
Last year it was "autistic." I think they are just going in [reverse] alphabetical order.
And how to pronounce it (Score:2)
http://y2u.be/GLxKsXNyIMs [y2u.be]