Do you, when you encounter dictionary compilers’ lists of words of the year, wonder: does anyone actually use these phrases?
And are your suspicions heightened as more of the words must be offered with explanations: “to LAMEFARM is to feign being out of touch as a means of seeking attention, from a viral animation about a sassy talking nappy”? (That’s made up, by the way.)
The best way of telling whether some phrase is known outside a small group of people (who we might call OVERSCROLLERS if we were feeling cute) is this: has it been used in a crossword puzzle?
Crossword setters fall over themselves to add fresh words to their grids. But setters and editors always put the solver’s interests first. We might use the language of combat, we might call compilers “torturers”, but this is just in fun: the solver is always supposed to win.
A puzzle that could only be finished if the solver knew their GYATs from their SOCIAL BATTERY would be unsatisfying. And irritating. It would be a bad puzzle.
Applying the crossword test to 2024’s words of the year (Collins has chosen a winner; Oxford and Macquarie are down to shortlists), we find no ROMANTASY, no LOOKSMAXXING. What about the frontrunner, BRAT?
Azed used PRAT BACK as a spoonerism for BRAT PACK; I myself went with …
26a Naughty child is on the loo (but only half) somewhere in Slovakia (10)
[ wordplay: BRAT + IS + half of LAVATORY ]
[ definition: somewhere in Slovakia ]
… a clue using BRAT as part of BRATISLAVA. Meanwhile, Cyclops used “Trump Jr” as a definition-by-example for BRAT as an answer. None of these embraces the 2024 sense of BRAT (“characterised by a confident, hedonistic attitude”), and it remains a word which I’ve heard explained a lot more than used. The closest we get is Methuselah …
2d Banger from Charli xcx album practised in auditorium (9)
[ wordplay: title of a Charli xcx album + soundalike (‘in auditorium’) of ‘versed’ (‘practised’) ]
[ definition: banger ]
… who alludes to the album that started this, as part of a multiply funny clue for BRATWURST. So it’s a no for BRAT.
I reckon DELULU (“deluded”) stands a chance of catching on and can envisage its being used to indicate an anagram. But the real word of the year, the only shortlisted phrase to have appeared in a crossword, is SUPERMAJORITY. Firefly uses it here …
21a Sky boss’s remarkable supermajority sees Roy and Sam sadly losing out (7)
[ wordplay: anagram (‘remarkable’) of SUPERMAJORITY without the letters of ROY and SAM ]
[ definition: sky boss ]
… as fodder to get us to JUPITER.
One word that should have been shortlisted – that I’d be delighted to see enter normal speech, described by Vox as “a bizarre (and annoying) explosion of tryhard slang [on TikTok]” – was coined in February. TRENDBAIT summer, anyone?
And in our cluing conference for PUNNY: the runners-up are Jacob_Busby’s “Unspun nylon trousers – the kind of material seen on The Two Ronnies?” and KJBramble’s “Weak, and with a number repeated – as your dad’s jokes might be?”. The winner is the terse “Almost bet on City (joking!)”
Kludos to Mr_Rob_T. Please leave entries below for our next challenge: how would you clue the shortlisted YAP?