Word of the Year 2024, By Azu Ishiekwene

I used to be watching the night information on Monday evening when two presenters used a phrase at completely different occasions that jolted me. I’ve heard and seen that phrase used usually, particularly by millennials and Gen Z, however I didn’t completely pay heed as a result of they had been principally in casual settings.

Anyhow – I meant to put in writing, anyway – I used to be jolted to listen to that phrase, anyhow, twice from two TV presenters on completely different programmes on the identical station simply minutes aside! My Use of English lecturers would have crushed the straying “s” out of me if I had used that phrase even in error.

However that was at one other time, earlier than younger adults invented extra new phrases and different tokens of social expression, together with memes and abbreviations, than at another time in current lexical historical past, because of expertise and the prevalence of social media.

Phrases Avant-garde

I’m making an attempt to regulate, however I’m not fairly there but. And on this transition to a courageous new world of avant-garde lexicography dominated by younger adults, it’s unbelievable that I’d have thought-about, anyhow, a jarringly colloquial phrase, as correct kind.

Nonetheless, Oxford United Press (OUP), the bastion of rectitude, is main the world in de-sensitising squeamishness in the usage of the English language. In different phrases, before later, I would effectively discover myself loving and even utilizing, anyhow, in correct communication.

In a language and literary examine in 2023 for the Phrase of the Yr, OUP topped “rizz” because the winner. The Press mentioned it created a shortlist of eight phrases “all chosen to mirror the temper, ethos, and preoccupations” of the earlier yr and “rizz” emerged because the favorite after over 30,000 language lovers worldwide pared down the phrase soup to 4 finalists: rizz, Swiftie, immediate, and situationship.

Rizz Up, Darling!

In case you’re involved in a quick historical past of the etymology of how rizz may quickly change into mainstream, OUP defined that simply because the fridge was from fridge and flu was from influenza, rizz (a noun), which may also be used as a verb, as in “to rizz up,” that means to draw, seduce, or chat up), has its roots the phrase “charisma.”

I’m not sure which phrase may win OUP’s crown in 2024, however I’ve an in-vogue phrase slate that will be tough to disregard. Maybe lovers of language, particularly millennials and Gen Z, the generational curators of those species of surprising phrases, may assist crown a winner from my checklist for 2024 and share that checklist on any of my social media handles @azu ishiekwene or e mail azuishiekwene@gmail.com. Or textual content Phrase of the Yr to +234 805 210 0356.

The primary candidate for me is “steeze.” I used to be confused the primary time I heard it and couldn’t instantly decide its that means. An English language coach and content material creator on Quora, Jasveer Kaur, described “steeze” as “A slang time period which is a mixture of ‘model’ and ‘ease’, meaning ‘wanting effortlessly cool, i.e., charisma or grace.” It’s a cousin of rizz, or “composure”, one other synonym for steeze from the Gen Z corpus.  

The Lit Vs the Ailing-lit

And the way about “lit?” Once I first heard that somebody was “lit”, I believed they had been alight, actually burning! It turned out that I used to be vastly mistaken. “Lit”, I later came upon, means one thing completely different. It’s a slang derived from African American Vernacular English, which gained reputation within the 2000s. It’s been round for fairly some time, however by some means, the “ill-lit” like me by no means fairly thought it might quickly be making its option to the mainstream.

However because of hip-hop and popular culture, it has change into a favorite expression amongst millennials and Gen Z. If you happen to say, “The live performance final evening was lit,” for instance, or “Her efficiency within the recreation was lit,” there’s nothing extra so as to add. It’s the very best expression of pleasure and enthusiasm. In the identical means, my father’s highest praise was “noble”, as in “You’ve executed noble!”

Rizz, lit, and dope, I’m instructed, are in the identical class, with ritz (derived from the ostentation of Ritz, the well-known lodge and hospitality model) being on the larger finish of the phrase spectrum.

Who’s the Simp?

How about “simp”? It’s not precisely a brand new phrase. It has advanced, shedding 5 unique letters within the course of, however gaining new that means and forex with TikTokers. Again within the day, that phrase was once “simpleton”, a person or lady usually thought or believed to be naïve, silly. Hip-hop tradition within the mouth of youthful adults gave it a makeover.

They twisted it in opposition to males right now, and now a simp is usually used to explain a person who’s overly anxious to please ladies. This appears to be the other of “demure,” a phrase previously used to explain modesty in younger women however now repurposed to convey cuteness in each sexes.

As an alternative of the ‘50-50 Love’, Teddy Pendergrass crooned about in his well-known album, a “simp” is a person who doesn’t thoughts 5 % or much less again for his affection and empathy in alternate for 100%. He’s for those who get my drift, a lady wrapper.  

In case you are already “vibing”, millennial-speak for “shedding oneself in nice music or dialog”, or feeling “shook”, the colloquial noun or verb for “shock”, then welcome to the evolving vocab world of younger adults fostered by the Web. From activism to style, sports activities and relationship, the language topography is altering, leaving older adults in a path of incomprehensible slang.

Merely Steeze

Within the slang line-up for 2024, anyhow, steeze, lit, rizz, vibing, shook, and simp are within the race. However the stage could be incomplete with out “ghost” (to all of the sudden cease speaking with somebody, as in ‘he ghosted me after our final assembly’), “no cap”, (the rattling reality, no embellishment), as in ‘petrol costs won’t ever return to N470/litre, no cap, or “snack”, (somebody engaging, as in ‘she’s wanting like a snack in that outfit’).

Whereas these phrases have a worldwide resonance, one would undoubtedly be on the prime of your last checklist for those who had been a Nigerian younger grownup—at dwelling or within the Diaspora: “E choke!” The harsher, extra menacing model is “Starvation dey!” Nonetheless, this latter expression has a broader utility and is sort of widespread amongst older adults.

When younger Nigerian adults say, “E choke,” they specific the nation’s extreme financial hardship. This hardship has left lots of them unable to have that sharwama or pizza, repair the braids they’d like to, and even chat for an extended with out resorting to knowledge mincing.

This ethos was expressed within the streets of many Nigerian states in August, when protesters, principally indignant youths, staged demonstrations captioned #Endbadgovernance, the lightning rod for financial hardship. However the phrase is utilized in multiple sense. It additionally conveys overwhelming pleasure, as in “Give me extra, even when it kills me!”

E Choke!

My 5 finalists for the phrases that the majority captured youthful adults’ moods, emotions, creativeness, and ethos in 2024 are e choke, steeze, no cap, vibing, and composure. I struggled to get the language instrument on my laptop computer to simply accept these phrases. I needed to overwrite them many occasions to retain them, as I puzzled how examination our bodies, just like the West African Examination Council (WAEC), would address this lexical insurgency.

Is it a sign of the gap these phrases nonetheless need to journey within the transition from fad to mainstream? Or is society simply too sluggish to catch up? Irrespective of, as they are saying in millennia-speak, las, las, tradition, language, and gear builders could be alright.

Azu Ishiekwene is the Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP and writer of the brand new ebook, Writing for Media and Monetising It.