Oxford announced that their 2025 word of the year is ‘rage bait.’ Which is what a mad Redditor will definitely describe as “pure rage bait.”
Art Credit: Aarón Blanco Tejedor
There was a time when ‘Word of the Year’ was meant to be anthropological. Where a bunch of people studying culture and language in cardigans and sensible shoes would look at data and say: “Huh. People sure are saying selfie a lot. Let’s write that down.”
Now, word of the year is just another PR-able moment designed to drive discourse and conversation and get people arguing on the internet for a few days. It’s all quite transparent.
Step 1: Pick a word that already annoys people.
Step 2: Announce the word and put out your pretentious press release.
Step 3: Wait for the internet to flip out.
‘Rage-bait’ really is the perfect choice because it’s doing the exact thing it describes. I mean, I felt the need to write about it. I guess I was filled with rage.
You read “Oxford selected ‘rage bait’ as their word of the year” and you feel baited; it’s absolutely perfect irony. The institution that is supposedly reporting on language is now just…participating in the same engagement economy as everyone else. Way o get those comments Oxford, we’re so proud of you!
Anger is cheap, fast, and generally shareable. It’s easier to get people to say “I hate this,” than get someone in the comments saying “Wow, this is such a quiet, thoughtful observation about how language reflects culture.”
Brands figured this out a long time ago. Now, even the institutions that catalog words are in on the game. I guess that’s bound to happen in an economy where attention is the currency.
Personally, I would have gone with Oxford’s backup “aura farming” as my word of the year, but that’s because my charisma can’t be matched.
If you’re new here, I write a monthly serialized novel called Everything is Advertising, about a burned-out Creative Director and his cynical team that accidentally create QAnon through a viral marketing campaign. If you like that kind of thing, you can start at Part One and catch up from there.
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