Free ebook: “The Mesmeric Mountain” by Stephen Crane

Dear friends and followers of the Grammaticus blog,

I’m happy to announce the release of the seventh title in the Grammaticus Free Library series. Published quarterly, each ebook in the series consists of a short story with the accompanying vocabulary notes (and sometimes additional exercises) intended for learners of English as a second or foreign language – CEFR levels B2 and above. 

The latest title is “The Mesmeric Mountain”, a curious tale of a man convinced he’s being followed by a mountain. It was written by Stephen Crane (1871-1900), a prolific American writer whose innovative style influenced generations of authors, particularly those writing in the tradition of American Naturalism.

To download your PDF copy, please click on the link below. You can also find it, along with all the previous Grammaticus Free Library titles, in the Library section of this website.

CLICK HERE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD

English words of the year 2024

It’s something of a tradition here on the Grammaticus blog to start the New Year with a lexicographical recap of the previous year. If you’ve missed it in the news, here’s an overview of the words that marked the year 2024, chosen by the leading dictionary publishers from the English-speaking world.

The Collins Word of the Year 2024 was “brat.” Its standard meaning – a badly behaving child – has been recently updated to reflect its current usage as an adjective: “characterized by a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.” The publisher has referred to the album titled Brat by Charli XCX as a major influence: “More than a hugely successful album, ‘brat’ is a cultural phenomenon that has resonated with people globally, and ‘brat summer’ established itself as an aesthetic and a way of life.”

Other words shortlisted by Collins were: 

• brainrot (noun): “an inability to think clearly caused by excessive consumption of low-quality online content”
• era (noun): “a period of one’s life or career that is of a distinctive character”
• looksmaxxing (noun): “attempting to maximize the attractiveness of one’s physical appearance”
• rawdogging (noun): “the act of undertaking an activity without preparation, support, or equipment”
• anti-tourism (noun): “opposition to or action against large-scale tourism”
• delulu (adjective): “utterly mistaken or unrealistic in one’s ideas or expectations”
• romantasy (noun): “a literary genre that combines romantic fiction with fantasy”
• supermajority (noun): “a large majority in a legislative assembly that enables a government to pass laws without effective scrutiny”
• yapping (noun): “talking at length, especially about inconsequential matters”

Dictionary.com had some of the same words on their shortlist, as you’ll see below, but their final choice was the adjective “demure.” This word saw an explosive, overnight rise in usage in 2024, largely thanks to a series of TikTok posts by Jools Lebron (you know the ones – “very demure, very mindful”). Similar to “brat”, this word has also somewhat changed its meaning thanks to the social media: originally meaning “reserved, quiet and modest”, it has comes to refer to “refined and sophisticated appearance or behavior in various contexts.”

Here are the other words Dictionary.com had on their radar:

• brainrot (noun): “the effects of spending too much time consuming low-quality content on social media”
• brat (noun): “confidently rebellious, unapologetically bold, and playfully defiant”
• extreme weather (noun): “a period of weather or a weather event that is severe and unexpected or abnormal for the location or season in which it occurs”
• Midwest nice (adjective): “a courteous and agreeable manner, often involving self-deprecation, politeness, and avoidance of conflict”
• weird (adjective): “strange, odd, bizarre”

Based on the number of lookups, the Merriam-Webster lexicographers chose the word “polarization,” and it isn’t difficult to see why. The year 2024 was the election year in the U.S., and the word got to be used in the media and the general public even more than usual. Polarization is defined as “division into two sharply distinct opposites; especially, a state in which the opinions, beliefs, or interests of a group or society no longer range along a continuum but become concentrated at opposing extremes.”

“Weird” and “demure” were also shortlisted by Merriam-Webster, along with the following words:

• totality (noun), in reference to the Moon: “the phase of an eclipse during which it is total; the state of total eclipse”
• fortnight(noun): “a period of 14 days; two weeks” – Taylor Swift fans will know why the word was so popular in 2024
• pander(verb): “to say, do, or provide what someone wants or demands even though it is not proper, good, or reasonable)
• resonate (verb): “to affect or appeal to someone in a personal or emotional way”
• allision (noun): “the act or an instance of a ship striking a stationary object”
• cognitive (adjective): “of, relating to, being, or involving conscious intellectual activity (such as thinking, reasoning, or remembering)”
• democracy (noun): “government by the people : rule of the majority”

Saving the Oxford English Dictionary for last, because their word of the year matches my personal choice. It’s “brain rot”, defined as follows: “Supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as a result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.” I don’t know about you, but I strongly feel there’s no word that describes the previous year better than that one.

Here’s the rest of the OED shortlist:

• demure (adjective): “of a person: reserved or restrained in appearance or behaviour. Of clothing: not showy, ostentatious, or overly revealing”
• dynamic pricing (noun): “the practice of varying the price for a product or service to reflect changing market conditions; in particular, the charge of a higher price at a time of greater demand”
• lore(noun): “a body of (supposed) facts, background information, and anecdotes relating to someone or something, regarded as knowledge required for full understanding or informed discussion of the subject in question”
• romantasy(noun): a genre of fiction combining elements of romantic fiction and fantasy, typically featuring themes of magic, the supernatural, or adventure, alongside a central romantic storyline”
• slop(noun): “art, writing, or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way, and characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic or inaccurate”

You can visit the OED Word of the Year 2024 web page, and read very interesting summaries on the origin of each of these words, along with short explanations as to how and why these particular words were shortlisted.

What’s your personal Word of the Year 2024? Tell us about it in the comments section below!

NOTES

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COVER IMAGE CREDIT

Felicia Montenegro via Unsplash

Why Americans Say Entree When They Mean Main Course

This article contains affiliate links; if you click such a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Salmon served with spinach and mashed potato. – Sokor Space/Shutterstock We may receive a commission on…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Frenchrestaurants #AmericanEnglish #francais #france #French #Frenchcuisine #FrenchRestaurants #Restaurants
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2594148/why-americans-say-entree-when-they-mean-main-course/

Today I finally understood a joke I've been missing for 40 years. My fault of course -- I only speak American, not British.

#MaxHeadroom #English #AmericanEnglish #BritishEnglish

Today someone called a layer of snow "shallow."

I don't think I've ever heard that used to describe snow. It feels wrong; even though (in the US at least) we say "deep" snow all the time. Shallow is for water, or people. Not for snow. Snow can be light or thin, but not shallow.

Do other people use this phrase? I know English is weird, but it startled me that I'd never noticed this quirk before.

#englishusage #copyediting #askmastodon #englishishard #americanenglish #BritishEnglish #irishenglish

English words of the year 2025

Welcome to the fifth consecutive words-of-the-year post — my way of saying goodbye to the previous year here on the blog.

Before we take a look at the words chosen by the leading lexicographers from the English-speaking world, can you think of any words that had a special significance for you in 2025, either English or from other languages? I’d love to hear about them, so please do post a comment below the post! 

It’s only fair to share mine: mayhap. It was on New Year’s Eve that I finished reading Anne Brontë’s fabulous 1848 novel “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall”, which I thoroughly enjoyed. And among all sorts of dated words I encountered there, mayhap has stuck with me as one I’d love to see used again. 

Mayhap simply means ‘perhaps’, ‘maybe’. It was formed by combining the modal verb may and the lovely archaic noun hap — ‘chance’, ‘fortune’.

Now, from my retro perspective on to the more forward-looking dictionaries of contemporary English!

Collins | VIBE CODING

Starting with the Collins Dictionary, their Word of the Year 2025 was vibe coding, defined as follows: “the use of artificial intelligence prompted by natural language to assist with the writing of computer code.” The publisher credited Andrej Karpathy, the founding engineer at OpenAI, for popularising the term, using it to describe “how AI enables creative output while he could forget that the code even exists.”

If you don’t care much for AI and the related terminology, you might like some of their shortlisted words more:

• aura farming: the deliberate cultivation of a distinctive and charismatic persona
• biohacking: the activity of altering the natural processes of one’s body in an attempt to improve one’s health and longevity
• broligarchy: a small clique of very wealthy men who exert political influence
• clanker: a derogatory term for a computer, robot, or source of artificial inteligence
• coolcation: a holiday in a place with a cold climate
• glaze: to praise of flatter someone excessively or undeservedly
• henry: acronym for high earner, not rich yet; a person who has not accrued substantial wealth from their high income
• micro-retirement: a break taken between periods of employment in order to pursue personal interests
• taskmasking: the act of giving a false impression that one is being productive in the workplace

Dictionary.com | 67

You’ve probably expected this one, as six-seven was one of biggest and most absurd global social phenomena of 2025. Defined by Dictionary.com as ultimately undefinable, meaningless, and nonsensical, “67” is interpreted as typical brainrot (which, incidentally, was one of Dictionary.com’s shortlisted WOTY 2024).

Among the shortlisted words are aura farming, broligarchy, and clanker, that we’ve already seen; and here are the other ones — not all of which are actual words, mind you:

• agentic: (of AI) capable of acting independently to accomplish a goal or task; acting like a human agent
• [dynamite emoji]: denoting “explosive” energy or “bombshell” news
• Gen Z stare: a vacant look that Zoomers are said to give people when it seems like a response is warranted
• kiss cam: a popular feature at stadium events (especially sporting events and concerts) in which two spectators, presumed to be a couple, are shown on a large screen and encouraged to kiss for the audience’s entertainment
• overtourism: a situation in which too many tourists travel to a popular destination, causing the place to suffer negative environmental, economic, and sociocultural impacts
• tariff: an official list or table showing the duties or customs imposed by a government on imports or exports
• tradwife: a married woman who chooses to be a homemaker as a primary occupation and adheres to or embodies traditional femininity and female gender roles, often associated with conservative or alt-right political values

Merriam-Webster | SLOP

Editors of the Merriam-Webster Dictionary chose slop as the Word of the Year 2025. While the word isn’t new (it’s a synonym for rubbish, among other things), the particular use that drew their attention happens to be connected with AI, namely: “digital content of low quality that is produced usually in quantity by means of artificial intelligence.” I loved this part of the explanation: “Like slime, sludge, and muck, slop has the wet sound of something you don’t want to touch. Slop oozes into everything. The original sense of the word, in the 1700s, was ‘soft mud.’ In the 1800s it came to mean ‘food waste‘ (as in ‘pig slop’), and then more generally, ‘rubbish’ or ‘a product of little or no value.’”

And here are the shortlisted words; you’ll be able to recognise social and political events lurking behind them:

• gerrymander: to divide or arrange (a territorial unit) into election districts in a way that gives one political party an unfair advantage
• touch grass: to participate in normal activities in the real world especially as opposed to online experiences and interactions
• performative: made or done for show (as to bolster one’s own image or make a positive impression on others)
• tariff: a schedule of duties imposed by a government on imported or in some countries exported goods
• six seven: a nonsensical expression connected to a song and a basketball player
• conclave: a private meeting or secret assembly

Oxford English Dictionary | RAGE BAIT

Chosen by 30.000 voters, the OED Word of the Year 2025 is rage bait, defined as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media account.”

The other two shortlisted words, shared by some of the other publishers, were aura farming and biohacking. 

To read my previous WOTY posts or to get more detailed information on the WOTY 2025 chosen by the publishers listed above, click on the links in the Additional Resources section below.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

English words of the year 2021

English years of the year 2022

English words of the year 2023

English words of the year 2024

The Collins Word of the Year 2025

Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year 2025

Merriam-Webster 2025 Word of the Year

Oxford Word of the Year 2025

NOTES

I’m a freelance language tutor (English, Latin, Classical Greek), researcher, and a literary scholar currently based in Belgrade, Serbia.  

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It's a very old meme but I do love it so.

#meme #english #americanenglish

"I had an acorn fall from a tree in my driveway and dent my roof!"

"An acorn fell from a tree in my driveway and dented my roof!"

Why is this "I had" pattern becoming so common? Why does adding two words (and inserting yourself as a subject) seem preferable to using past tense in the normal way?

(I understand that language changes over time, so I'm actually curious as to what may be motivating this change).

#AmericanEnglish

Americans call people from England the "English,"

but don't call people from New England states the "New English". (Rather, they're called "New Englanders".)

This is bothering me today.

#language #AmericanEnglish

When your British TV interviewee says, "I'm a kid from a council estate" but the transcription AI you're using is USA-coded, things can get apocalyptic pretty fucking quickly.

#AI #Artificialintelligence #BritishEnglish #AmericanEnglish #journalism #journalists #interview #thatescalatedquickly