Quick summary: Wherever the internet took you this year, did you hear of brain rot? It’s Oxford University’s word of the year — but what is it? Today, we’ll unpack how the media talks about the phenomenon, how there’s actually more to it than nonsense internet culture, and the role of African American Vernacular English in the creation of slang trends, featuring reporting from PushBlack, Black History Year, and Parlé.
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What is brain rot, and what’s it got to do with AAVE?
Hey, y’all,I’m fascinated by the way the English language has evolved, and how it’s changed our culture in the process. You know how dictionaries choose a word or phrase to sum up the year? That’s one good way to track our language as it morphs, especially when it comes to slang. So, without further ado, the word of the year is … drumroll please … Brain rot? Yes, that’s correct. Oxford University Press announced Monday that its 2024 selection for word of the year is indeed “brain rot.” It has become “a catch-all term for bizarre and semi-unintelligible extremely online language,” NBC reports. If you’ve spent time on short-form video social media lately — TikTok, Instagram Reels, Youtube Shorts — you may be familiar with this term as it soared in usage on those platforms this year. In Oxford’s words, brain rot is “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging.” Not everyone agrees with this understanding of the term. “Brain rot is just gentrified [African American Vernacular English] mixed with video game lingo,” one user of the platform X wrote in July. It’s true: AAVE is a major source of modern English slang, particularly in the United States. The pattern of white people and mainstream channels appropriating it is no less common — and is often accelerated in the age of digital media.
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