Until this summer, calling someone a brat was an insult referring to a child’s impudence, a meaning that had remained unchanged for a century.
Dictionary compilers are now rewriting the definition of brat to reflect how younger speakers are using it as a word to describe admirable traits — a trend prompted by an album by the British singer Charli XCX.
Collins has named “brat” as its word of the year and classifies the new meaning as an adjective to describe “a confident, independent and hedonistic attitude”.
Supporters of Kamala Harris used “brat” as a term of endearment after the Democratic candidate used the trend’s lime green colour in her social media campaign
WILL OLIVER/EPA
The new way of using the word has been among the most widely embraced this year, alongside the political term “supermajority” to describe the result of a landslide election, “looksmaxxing” to describe attempts to make oneself as