It appears “brat” summer will live on after all.
Collins Dictionary announced “brat” as its word of the year Friday, calling it a “cultural phenomenon that has resonated with people globally.”
The word sparked a cultural movement after British artist Charli XCX released her sixth studio album, “Brat,” in June. The album’s signature green color and typeface appeared everywhere, from memes on social media (embraced by Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign) to businesses and storefronts.
“Brat summer established itself as an aesthetic and a way of life,” Collins Dictionary wrote on its website. It defined “brat” as having “a confident, independent, and hedonistic attitude.”
Representatives for Charli XCX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While some mistook “brat” as having a negative connotation, Charli XCX and her fans declared that it was someone who was unapologetically themselves. The singer previously described a brat as someone who likes to party and is “honest, blunt and a little bit volatile.”
Collins Dictionary wrote in its blog post that “brat” was a “fitting word” for 2024 as it was “a year when hedonism and anxiety have combined to form an intoxicating brew.”
“Brat” was not the only word inspired by a pop star considered for word of the year. “Era” was also on the shortlist, nodding to Taylor Swift’s record-breaking “Eras Tour.”
Numerous popular internet slang terms also made the shortlist, including: “brainrot” (or the inability to think clearly), “looksmaxxing” (defined as “attempting to maximize the attractiveness of one’s physical appearance”), “rawdogging” (defined as “the act of undertaking an activity without preparation, support, or equipment”), “delulu” (a shortened term for deluded or delusional), and “yapping” (defined as “barking” or “talking at length esp about inconsequential matters”).
“Anti-tourism” (defined as “opposition to or action against large-scale tourism”), “romantasy”(a literary genre combining romance and fantasy) and “supermajority” (defined informally as “a large majority in a legislative assembly that enables a government to pass laws without effective scrutiny”) rounded out the list.
Collins Dictionary said that the proliferation of words such as “delulu,” “romantasy” and “brainrot” also pointed to the escapism people have been engaging with to cope with an uncertain world.
“Many of the words on this year’s shortlist aren’t exactly new, but they’ve certainly been given another lease of life,” the dictionary wrote in its blog post, “coming back into fashion for reasons that are sometimes hard to fathom.”