Did you snail through the year?: Adam Jacot de Boinod lists his favourite new terms from 2024

ByAdam Jacot de Boinod

Dec 21, 2024 07:07 PM IST

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‘Each year I marvel at the new ways we find to describe a thing, name a feeling, or convey something new about our changing world,’ he says.

I love how the English language effortlessly embraces new words.

A snail girl puts her happiness and well-being before other demands on her time. (How quaint the word is, and how idyllic the idea.) (Adobe Stock)

Perhaps this is because it has such varied roots: Ancient Latin, Ancient Greek, languages across modern-era Europe and the vernacular of London’s streets. Or because, for better and worse, English remains one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, and continues to borrow from the native languages and new slang of its wide range of speakers.

Whatever the reasons, each year I find myself marvelling at the new ways we have found to describe a thing, name a feeling, or convey to one another something new about our changing world.

There is invariably wit on display in the new terms, and inventiveness; above all, there is that ancient, evocative yearning to be heard and understood.

Snail girl, hush trip and popcorn brain are some of my favourite terms from the past year. (What are yours?)

* Snail girl: This is essentially someone who is the opposite of a “boss girl”. A “snail girl” (I love how quaint the term sounds) puts her happiness and well-being before other demands on her time. Isn’t that just idyllic?

A similar, more gender-neutral term for this is “soft life”, in which the individual pursues a lifestyle that is as stress-free and unchallenging as possible, with a focus on relaxation and well-being.

“Brat”, meanwhile, isn’t new of course, but has gained currency in a new avatar: as a term denoting “someone with a confident, independent and hedonistic attitude”. Popularised most extensively by the English singer-songwriter Charli XCX, who released an album of that name in 2024, it has even been picked by Collins Dictionary as Word of the Year.

* Hush trip: The work-from-anywhere culture that has lived on well past the pandemic (which officially ended in May 2023) continues to inspire new ways of life, and new terms for them.

Nomadification is the process by which people adopt more-mobile lifestyles, working across different cities, countries or continents. Wanderpreneur is someone who runs their own start-up, but has opted to have no permanent office or home.

A “hush trip” is a journey undertaken by a remote employee without the knowledge of their employer. And then there’s my all-time favourite such term (albeit one that has been around a few years): sunlighting, in which one works an extra job during the day, using the work-from-home model to keep this activity a secret.

* Popcorn brain: Leisure time has sparked new terms too. “Popcorn brain” is a state of mind in which one can no longer keep one’s attention fixed on a single thing. It is thought to have roots in the overuse of social media (which has certainly caused attention spans to shrink in recent decades, as multiple studies have shown).

There is also “brain rot”, which is described as an inability to think as clearly or intelligently as before. This too is said to be caused by the excessive consumption of low-quality content online. It has been picked as Oxford English Dictionary’s Word of the Year.

One way to ease brain rot and popcorn brain, it is said, is to “touch grass”, or participate in a grounding, normal real-world activity. This could be a walk; a meeting with a friend; hell, even just a leisurely phone call.

(Adam Jacot de Boinod is the author of The Meaning of Tingo)