{"id":319,"date":"2016-02-07T23:30:55","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T07:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/?p=319"},"modified":"2018-02-16T01:45:31","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T09:45:31","slug":"words-of-the-year-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/?p=319","title":{"rendered":"Words of the Year: 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2015, I sang a lot of karaoke, I hugged Paul F. Tompkins<\/a>, I spoke at DSNA<\/a>, I became an aunt, I visited the Internet Archive<\/a>, I found historical gems<\/a>\u00a0in Tom Dalzell’s slang library, I packed stickers with Erin McKean<\/a>, and I thought a lot about words.<\/p>\n

I started a\u00a0list<\/a>\u00a0of word of the year candidates last June\u00a0when Caitlyn Jenner dramatically increased the global visibility of trans and nonbinary people.\u00a0With new\u00a0awareness\u00a0comes new opportunities for\u00a0allies to listen and promote more considerate terms in conversation. I added she<\/em>, preferred<\/em> pronouns<\/em>, passing<\/em>, cis<\/em>, self-identify<\/em>, and\u00a0gender-affirming<\/em> surgery <\/em>to the list to reflect that monumental shift in awareness.<\/p>\n

Candidate words like #staywoke<\/em>, privilege<\/em>, microaggression<\/em>, safe space<\/em>, and depraved heart murder<\/em>\u00a0reflect the continued need for the #blacklivesmatter<\/em> movement.\u00a0Wondaland Records’ electrifying protest song Hell You Talmbout<\/a>\u00a0rose up in August, which records the names of the dead and gives a mighty voice to the hashtag\u00a0#SayHerName<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There was cause for humanity to celebrate with the court decision behind\u00a0#LoveWins<\/em> and the discovery of Homo Naledi <\/em>remains in South Africa, a new human species\u00a0that was formally named in September. #Ham4Ham<\/em>\u00a0shows stopped traffic and my productivity in the fall, especially after finding\u00a0an\u00a0archive of\u00a0all the videos<\/a>. New slang flowed into the mainstream, including Netflix and chill<\/em>, on fleek<\/em>, smol<\/em>, basic<\/em>, and thirsty<\/em>.<\/p>\n

At the end of\u00a02015, professional lexical organizations chose identity<\/em>, singular they<\/em>, -ism<\/em>, 😂, and captain’s call<\/em> as their respective words of the year. (Click to see a list of all past\u00a0Word of the Year<\/a>\u00a0winners). Encyclopedia Briannica has chosen to define\u00a02015\u00a0with two\u00a0words: one to represent the shifting of opinions in professional circles, and one to commemorate personal events\u00a0in 2015.<\/p>\n

Professional Word of the Year: Singular THEY<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I am a freelance copy editor, I flow\u00a0between many styles and levels of formality, tailoring my approach to help\u00a0the individual or company\u00a0reach their intended audience with intention and clarity. Across all the genres, though, I do not tolerate the default\u00a0he<\/em> pronoun. “The first player goes. He<\/em> rolls the dice. He<\/em> moves the token.” Unacceptable. I recognize that ‘he or she’ quickly becomes bulky, and that ‘it’ is disrespectful to human life, but those would only be obstacles if English\u00a0didn’t already have they<\/strong>. It is a genderless pronoun that includes all people, that gives them respect\u00a0but does not exclude in order to do so. If used carelessly, it could make speech less clear, but that is true of all words in all sentences.<\/p>\n

We already use they<\/em> to describe people we don’t know well, as in “Someone at the gas station parked awkwardly. I asked them<\/strong> to move\u00a0and they<\/strong> were rude about it.” The difference now is that some individuals are choosing they\/them as their preferred pronouns. You could know someone intimately for 20 years and say “Have you met my friend, Mal? They<\/strong>\u00a0sang me a song on my birthday.”<\/p>\n

\"malblum\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\"briannica\"<\/p>\n

Last April, a flurry of pro-singular they<\/em> tweets appeared\u00a0during and after the annual American Copy Editors Society (ACES) meeting. Their approval of the pronoun as a gender-free solution meansthe form will appear more and more consistently, and unconsciously influence what people consider to be standard, reinforcing the choice as it becomes more and more commonplace.<\/p>\n

The momentous thing about singular they<\/em> coming to the forefront is that most Words of the Year are content words\u00a0<\/strong>(adjectives, nouns and verbs) that somehow encapsulate the mood of the year. Content words pop in and out of language all the time, getting modified and replaced by newer content words as they lose their novelty and potency.\u00a0Singular they<\/em>, and because x<\/em>\u00a0a few years ago, buck that trend because they are function words <\/strong>(pronouns, prepositions, particles and conjunctions). Function words are the<\/em> basic foundational\u00a0parts of<\/em> language\u00a0that<\/em> give structure to<\/em> sentences (function words in italics).<\/p>\n

If you try reading the Lord’s Prayer in Middle English<\/a> or Old English<\/a>, the spelling will\u00a0throw you off, but you’ll be able to pick out\u00a0function words like and<\/em>, we<\/em>, our<\/em>, us<\/em>, of<\/em>, on<\/em>, and to, <\/em>because they\u00a0haven’t changed much in\u00a01000 years.\u00a0That’s why this shift of approval and need for a genderless pronoun is so exciting.\u00a0They<\/em> has been around for a long time, but because of the growing understanding that there is a difference between gender identity, sex, and sexual orientation, its ambiguous features are suddenly exactly what we need.\u00a0This shift to singular they is the\u00a0Hale-Bopp function word change of your lifetime.<\/p>\n

Personal Word of the Year: #STEVENBOMB<\/strong><\/p>\n

Through 99 Percent Invisible<\/a>, Octothorpean<\/a> puzzles, and Twitter<\/a> hashtags, octothorpe<\/strong> ran a strong campaign to become my personal word of 2015. In the end, it was overshadowed by a word associated with my person of the year.<\/p>\n

To begin with, Steven Universe is a gorgeously well-planned\u00a0cartoon that premiered in late\u00a02013 and wrapped up\u00a0its first season in March 2015. There have only been 26 more 11-minute episodes since then. They now\u00a0air sporadically in unexpected groupings that\u00a0the Crewniverse itself calls Stevenbombs<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Stevenbomb\"<\/p>\n

The term comes from the episode “Garnet’s Universe” in which Steven ambushes\u00a0the stoic but loving Garnet from above, declaring”STEVENBOMB!” and landing softly<\/a> on her square head. I live and die by Stevenbombs: waiting for their announcement, absorbing\u00a0the new revelations and songs, and realizing three episodes in that five is not going to be enough.<\/p>\n

Last January, molecular biologist and board game evangelist<\/a> Steven Tan resolved\u00a0to play all 270 of his table top games during 2015. He chronicled that journey on\u00a0Instagram<\/a>, and completed the challenge in early December.\u00a0Last January, I started dating that very same Steven Tan.<\/p>\n

He dropped from the rafters like Steven Universe into my weekly game night, bursting into song and quickly becoming someone I looked forward to solving puzzles with.\u00a0His intelligent\u00a0and\u00a0charming\u00a0presence in 2015 was an unplanned joy that amplified my accomplishments\u00a0and gave\u00a0them greater meaning.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

He’s kept me grounded, he’s a sounding board for my errant language thoughts, and we’d make a great\u00a0Only Connect<\/a>\u00a0team if\u00a0the references weren’t so exceedingly\u00a0British.<\/p>\n

He must be a lexicographer, because he defined 2015 for me. Now that’s a pickup line<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_5261\"<\/p>\n

For Steven Universe, Steven Tan, and the hope and good times they represent, my personal word for 2015\u00a0is #Stevenbomb<\/em>.\u00a0Here’s to 2016<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2015, I sang a lot of karaoke, I hugged Paul F. Tompkins, I spoke at DSNA, I became an aunt, I visited the Internet Archive, I found historical gems\u00a0in Tom Dalzell’s slang library, I packed stickers with Erin McKean, and I thought a lot about words. I started a\u00a0list\u00a0of word of the year candidates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-words","category-woty","cat-6-id","cat-33-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4SNLB-59","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=319"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":508,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319\/revisions\/508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.encyclopediabriannica.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}