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Alison Stewart: This is All of It. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in Soho. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. I'm really grateful you're here. On today's show, we'll remember the great poet and orator Nikki Giovanni. We'll also talk to the directors of a new documentary which takes a look at the consequences of Texas's near total abortion ban. We'll also talk about the racial gap in rates of psychiatric psychosis with a New York Times reporter and a psychologist he talks to in the piece. Plus, we will hear a live performance from musician Ravi Coltrane. That is the plan. Let's get this started with the Word of the Year.

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Alison Stewart: What word captures 2024? A year that began with a door flying off an Alaskan Airlines Boeing 787Max in midair. 2024 gave us some historic matchups and beefs, including Drake and Kendrick, Wicked and Gladiator, Trump and Biden, then Trump and Harris. In a few different ways, it feels like 2024 was urging us to pick a side. This year's Merriam Webster's Word of the Year is Polarized. We've talked a little bit about that word and some words that have been newly added to the dictionary this year, including freestyle, jamband, streetcorn, nepo-baby, late-capitalism and badassery. Joining us now is Peter Sokolowski, Merriam Webster's editor at large. He'll tell us how they chose the Word of the Year and what it tells us about the moment we are living in. Peter, welcome back to All of It.

Peter Sokolowski: It's great to be back with you. I'm glad you're well.

Alison Stewart: Thank you so much for asking. It was interesting because the press release notes that the word polarization dates back to the 1800s. What do they mean? What do they mean then?

Peter Sokolowski: Well, originally it was a scientific word, like many words in English that came from Latin. Most of those words really came in the 1500s or the 1600s, what we call the Renaissance, this invasion of Latin terms for science. When you think of people like Isaac Newton or even Descartes, they were writing in Latin. That's the basis of our scientific and, as you know, our medical language to this day. This is a little bit later. The word polarized polarization comes in the early 1800s, and that's a little bit later than most of the scientific vocabulary. That's really because there was the new science of examining light. Of course, they did not know and we still debate whether light is a wave or a particle. Also the idea of electricity, as you know, was very, very much in its infancy at that time. Poles, or polarizing, are essential terms for both fields of science.

Alison Stewart: What is me Merriam Webster's definition of Polarization, 2024?

Peter Sokolowski: We define polarization 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. That's obviously a little bit of a metaphor for the literal distance or the literal marker of, for example, the South and the North Pole, which are things that talk about separation.

Alison Stewart: Why is polarization a good choice for Word of the Year among all the other words that could be used to describe the state of our politics?

Peter Sokolowski: Well, what's nice about the way we do it is that rather than us telling you the public what the year was about, we let the public tell us, the dictionary, what the year was about. What we do is we look at our data. We look at which words sent people to the dictionary the most often. We have 100 million page views per month at Merriam Webster.com and our dictionary. so what we tend to do is look at which words were searched for in 2024 that were not searched for in such numbers last year. Because there are many words that are looked up year in and year out, day in and day out, because the dictionary is there to measure the language, not to measure the news. However, the news, of course, does cue a lot of our curiosity. In this case, we have a word like polarization, which is not a new word. It's not particularly difficult in terms of spelling, but it's a word that was really the focus of attention. We saw a big lift this year. Not a single date, not like election day specifically, but actually the whole year taken as a whole. Like the tide rising all boats we just saw this was the word that people were looking up.

Alison Stewart: Listeners, we would like to hear from you. What's your pick for the word of 2024? Why? Call or text us at 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. Call out to shout out what you would pick as the Word of the Year. If you want to nominate a word to be added to the dictionary next year, we have one of the people who can help us make that happen. Call in now and make your case at 212-433-WNYC. The press release also says, "The dictionary remains trusted resource that millions of people turn to in order to better understand the words that define our times." How important is the dictionary's neutrality?

Peter Sokolowski: Oh, it's everything. The dictionary has to define words for everyone and for all sides. Otherwise, if we don't share an understanding of the language, then how can we possibly share ideas? How can we possibly ever compromise if we can't agree on terms? That is the most important thing. A neutral and objective arbiter of meaning is the job of the dictionary. That goes back to way before even Noah Webster in the 19th century. The idea is to have a repository of all of the neutral meanings of words. It's such an important part of our mission. It's essential to everything that we do, is that we do the research. Again, we let the public's use of language tell us how to write those definitions.

Alison Stewart: Got a text that says, "My suggestion for the Word of the Year is unsustainable. I use it mostly to describe our American political system." The next text says, "Would love to hear your guests talk about the progression of the word literally. I've always wondered when the dictionary is going to expand its definition to include the exact opposite. This year's usage seems to have shifted back to its original meaning, often acting as an affirmation to something someone just said."

Peter Sokolowski: Well, the figurative use of literally has been defined in our dictionaries, I think, since about 1909, the big unabridged edition at that time. Because literally is one of those words that's used as an intensifier. What I mean by that is I could say to you, I literally died laughing, and you would understand that I, in fact, am not dead, and that I was adding intensity to dying laughing. That's something that linguists call semantic bleaching. Semantic means meaning and bleaching, like with laundry. Semantic bleaching simply means that if I tell you I literally died laughing, then literally no longer carries meaning. It only intensifies the meaning of the other words in that sentence. Once you do that, then with any word, it could be a word like absolutely, or, let's see, terribly. Any word like that suddenly becomes an intensifier, which means it no longer carries its literal, in this case, meaning or its etymological meaning, which is often what people are referring to. The fact is, it's a normal function of language. It happens with many, many words. It's just that we notice this one a lot.

Alison Stewart: Our guest is Peter Sokolowski, Merriam Webster's editor at large. We're talking about the word of 2024. They chose Polarization. We want to know what word would you choose to pick for 2024 and why? 212-433-9692. 212-433-WNYC. Let's talk about a couple of the runners up. Demure. Demure was driven by a meme video. We're going to listen actually to the original. Let's take a listen.

Video Clip: You see how I do my makeup for work. Very demure, very mindful. I don't come to work with a green cut crease. I don't look like a clown when I go to work. I don't do too much. I'm very mindful while I'm at work. See how I look very presentable?

Alison Stewart: All right. Why did you pick demure versus mindful or presentable?

Peter Sokolowski: Well, this is a great example of where the data tells us very clearly, demure was the word that sent people to the dictionary. Again, not a new word. It's been in English since then, since the 1300s, but in this case seemed really specific with this use and of course it went viral. This is a term that sent people to the dictionary. It was very clear-cut question of the data showing us the curiosity of the public.

Alison Stewart: Could you tell us what the actual pronunciation of that word is? Because I've heard it in very different ways.

Peter Sokolowski: Well, we only give demure as our phonetic transcription. Demure. It comes from a French word. It looks a little bit foreign, but it's certainly pretty easy to say demure. What else have you heard?

Alison Stewart: Oh, I've heard demur. I've heard all kinds of different pronunciations, but I like yours. Let's see, we've got incredible. Someone texted that for this year. Someone text perimenopause. "Find the menopause and perimenopause conversation is becoming more mainstream and the education is opening up thanks to a lot of advocates." That's very interesting.

Peter Sokolowski: Yes. Words can enter the public discourse and become less sensitive or less offensive even. In the case of medical terminology, of course, there is a resistance to either privacy or embarrassment. Those things can be overcome and overcome rather quickly if the word is simply used in its plain meaning. That's probably true here.

Alison Stewart: I have a question here, a text question that says, "Do many languages have a dictionary as Robust as English?"

Peter Sokolowski: We're very proud of our English Language Dictionary. The fact is, that's a very good point. Robust. If you mean large, then English certainly is large. There's a really good reason for that. Because of the Norman Conquest back in 1066 and the fact that the victorious Normans used French as their bureaucratic language. What happened was English is full of synonyms with words that have roots in Anglo Saxon or Old English and roots in French or Latin. We have words-- Think about basic words like we could say, "Kingly," which is an Old English word, or, "Royal," which is the French word. They both mean the same thing. That's true for almost everything you can think of, from food to body parts to-- Certainly all of our daily activities. We could say meal or we could say feast, for example. We have two words at least for everything in English. That means our dictionary is a lot bigger than most other dictionaries.

Alison Stewart: We have a call on line one. This is Jenny from Greenwich Village. Hi, Jenny, thank you so much for calling All of It.

Jenny: Hi, thanks. I'm loving this show and thank you for your great explanations of words. I was calling-- Sorry, I didn't catch the very beginning, so maybe you guys addressed this, but I don't think you did. I was wondering how you know, what the most popular word is or one that's the zeitgeist or whatever. If it's a word that people would not look up, but is used a lot more this year, say, than last year. People feel like they know what it is so they wouldn't Google it or look it up in the dictionary.

Alison Stewart: Really good--

Peter Sokolowski: Yes, that's a great question. That's absolutely true. We're good at reading data, we're not good at reading minds. The fact is there are plenty of words-- I think back to the death of Michael Jackson was a period of intense curiosity. the word icon was in every obituary and people looked that word up and the word emaciated ended up being one of the most looked up words of that year of his death because of the reported condition of his body. One word that was not looked up was the word moonwalk, which was in our dictionary as a verb and as a noun. Yet that word was also in most of his appreciations and obits. The fact is we can sometimes sense the dog that didn't bark because people reading Michael Jackson's obituary are probably very familiar with the very narrow sense of moonwalk. The term emaciated suddenly used in a very narrow medical way and referring to one of the most wealthy and famous people in the world seemed like cognitive dissonance. That's a really good reason to look up a word.

Alison Stewart: I've got one for you. Weird. [crosstalk]

Peter Sokolowski: Well, weird is-- Yes, weird was a big news story, of course. Weird. Here's an interesting mechanical thing. Weird is just hard to spell. I mean, the E and I thing is always a problem for English speakers. That's just something that is a mechanical problem for all of us, including me, by the way. I have to look up that word and check it. I suspect in this case there was maybe a question of is there a narrow use? Is there a specific use? Specificity is often the reason people look up a word that's familiar in other ways, like the word totality this year, which referred very specifically to a kind of lunar eclipse. Even though totality is not a word, that's very difficult for most of us. When a word seems legal or medical or scientific or technical, and in this case this weird use seemed very specific, but I suspect it was really just because people wanted to spell the word and they were checking it out.

Alison Stewart: What else was on your runner up list?

Peter Sokolowski: Well, also regarding politics, the term pander was used by both sides to accuse the other. Conservatives accused Vice President Harris of pandering to different groups like young voters or black voters or gun rights advocates. Then on the other side, Tim Walz himself accused Donald Trump of pandering when he visited a McDonald's. Pandering to hourly wage workers, for example. This is a word, once again, it seemed very specific and it was very intense. I needn't tell you that this was an intense year of news regarding the election. It's not a surprise that terms relating to the election were looked up in the dictionary.

Alison Stewart: We're discussing the Word of the Year, Polarization, as well as its runners up. My guest is Peter Sokolowski, Merriam Webster's editor at large. We'll have more after a quick break. This is All of It.

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Alison Stewart: You are listening to All of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We're talking to Peter Sokolowski, Merriam Webster's editor at large. We're talking about the word of 2024. They've chosen Polarization as their word. We'd love to hear from you. What's your word pick for 2024 and why? 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. You can call in and join us on the air or you can text to us at that number as well. There were other dictionaries, we should say, Peter, that picked a Word of the Year and I want to get your take on a coup couple of those. Oxford English Dictionary picked Brainrot. Its definition is the supposed deterioration of a person's mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material. Now particularly online content considered to be trivial or un-challenging. Did you guys come across brainrot?

Peter Sokolowski: Well, we don't enter that in the dictionary and they had a different metric. I find it fascinating. Rather than measuring the words that visitors look up on our online dictionary, what Oxford did was they took a census of published writing in a massive corpus. A corpus is just a gathering of words for search and research purposes. What they found was brainrot was a term that occurred frequently in 2024 and very infrequently before that. What they saw was, as we do, measure the difference between the current year and previous years. The difference is, of course, they were measuring usage and we were measuring curiosity. This looking through the window in two different directions, as it were, but a great and fascinating measure of our curiosity or our use of a new term that will almost certainly be a dictionary entry at some point.

Alison Stewart: The Collins English Dictionary selected brat. That's a lowercase B by the way, described as characterized by a confident, independent and hedonistic attitude. I'm curious how you feel about a word that is coined by someone famous, in this case Charlie XCX.

Peter Sokolowski: Well, I mean we can all coin words and everybody should. It's a great thing to do. In this case, of course, they're referring to something that went viral that was very much an online phenomenon. There's a thing about end of year lists, top films, top albums, you know, that, for the public, has the sense of critics picking their favorites. That's what a lot of people do. That's what some other dictionaries do. We try to keep to the data, to tell the truth about words and to have a story that connects with the curiosity of the public and the actual use of the dictionary. Also there are stories like this that are just fun use of language and there's nothing wrong with celebrating that too.

Alison Stewart: You added a number of subgenres in different areas Freestyle and jamband were added to the domain of music. As for narrative genres, we now have beach-read for books, true-crime for any kind of narrative. Dungeon crawler for video games. We're looking at new words that are part of a broader system of categories. How can you tell when there's critical mass for a new word in a subgroup?

Peter Sokolowski: Right. Well, this is really a very simple metric, which is if the word is used frequently, then it goes into the dictionary. What happens is some of these subgroups will be only discussed in specialty publications or on specialty chats. Then when they flip over to the broader public, to a bigger venue like Vogue or the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal or the Atlantic, once it goes into a general interest publication, and without any kind of, what I call, linguistic white gloves-- If a term like freestyle is used without a definition or a parenthesis or italics, if it's not used like a foreign word in other words, then that means that the editors of that publication think their writers are familiar with that term, and that means it's ready to go into the dictionary. It's a naturalized citizen of the English language. One thing about this, that batch is all of the ones that you cited and so many from that batch were what we call compound words or compound terms. beach-read and true-crime and touch-grass. That just happens to be an artifact of this particular release. We have a few releases every year. It's really true that these mashup words or these compound words or these, these portmanteau words, they bring real specificity and real meaning. What it really does show is that beach-read by itself, you might understand, but it's actually a fixed form. It's been lexicalized. It's now its own thing. You can say, hey, that's a great beach-read. It really means a very narrow, specific thing.

Alison Stewart: "Fascist is a word that may have lost its meaning." That's a text we got. Also, I've noticed writ-large being used often, usage almost feels forced." We've got Russ who's calling in from Wilton, Connecticut. Hi, Russ. Thanks for calling All of It.

Russ: Hi, thanks. Enjoying this. My question is about the math term turned phrase. I don't even know if it's in the dictionary of 100%. It's being used ubiquitously now in sports, in politics and business, and perhaps globally as well. I'm just curious your opinion on that.

Peter Sokolowski: Well, I have absolutely noticed that in the last couple of years-- I hear that rhetorically instantly by colleagues, certainly, especially-- It's a business jargony type term. I hear it everywhere. Some of this is what I call the recency illusion. If you notice it once and you remark on it, then you're going to notice it every single time you hear it. That's certainly true for me, just like it is for you, Russ. We do have an entry for 100% and we do define it meaning perfect or thorough or unquestionable. This specific-- Oh, I'm sorry, we do have it as an adverb, meaning without qualification, completely or entirely. We do define this, use the adverbial use of 100%. I think its increase in usage in the last couple of years is absolutely real. It's one of those things that language has ups and downs and has trends just like everything else. This is clearly a trend. You've really noticed something that I've noticed also.

Alison Stewart: Yes, you have some fun additions too. Like badassery and touch-grass and IDGAF. They're bonafide dictionary entries. Some people would call them slang. Do you describe them as slang?

Peter Sokolowski: Well, it depends on the term. Slang, or jargon, is just usually a closed language. It's the language used among musicians, for example, or among skateboarders. That one thing it means. Informal language is one thing that we identify and we will say in the definition that it's usually informal, which is to say to the reader or to the user of the dictionary that you may not want to use this in professional or academic writing. A big part of the usage information of the dictionary is to avoid offending others and avoid embarrassing yourself. That's why we give labels like slang or informal or regional terms like British, for example. That's an important part of the usage information given in the dictionary. They are informal. If they occur in print and especially in what we call carefully edited prose and publications, then that means they might be informal but it's absolutely used frequently enough to be in the dictionary.

Alison Stewart: We've got a text that says, "Some organizations should compile a year of the most common new clichés used on social media comments. Reach an example, Read the room. What are you on about?" Let's also talk to Richard from Jersey City. Hi Richard, thanks for calling All of It.

Richard: Oh my goodness. I'm so glad to be on your show again. Thank you. The word that has been making me nuts, it's really gotten up my nose is vibe. It used to be if you had bad vibes about somebody you met, you didn't trust them, you had a bad feeling from them or something. Now, oh, it's a vibe which can mean anything. It doesn't mean anything.

Alison Stewart: Let's get your response, Peter.

Peter Sokolowski: That's another trend. Absolutely. First of all, all of us have pet peeves, and every pet peeve is as valid as the next. That just determines in some ways how we choose our own words. Vibe, meaning a distinctive feeling or quality, it has expanded without question. Richard is right. It has expanded into this catch all for an emotional reaction to something. Whether or not that ever gets isolated in the dictionary, I'm not sure. Right now, a distinctive feeling or quality capable of being sensed, which is our present definition, it does to me encompass that idea. It's just that it seems like that idea is expanding, as Richard implies, and he's right. It's a trendy term right now.

Alison Stewart: A question for you. We got a text that says, "Do they remove words each year?"

Peter Sokolowski: Well, because the dictionary is online. The online dictionary doesn't have any space restrictions. The answer is no, we don't remove. However, in the print edition, there are some famous things that have been removed and mostly the words removed are making room for more useful terms. I promise you, these are boring words for the most part, and they're mostly compound words. We were just talking about compound words a minute ago. Compound words tend to be self-evident. I know that in the last edition, the term crossbowman, meaning one who wields a crossbow, and the term plantsman, meaning a gardener, those were two terms that were removed and they saved us a couple lines each and allowed us to put in other new vocabulary. Yes, we do sometimes remove words. We don't often have to put them back in.

Alison Stewart: This is a funny text we got. "Brainrot, the OED's word is the reason for Polarization." We do this every year. It's so much fun. It's interesting. What does it mean to you to pick a Word of the Year?

Peter Sokolowski: What it does for me is something, it's very important, which is every year it's another validation of the public utility of the dictionary. The dictionary is a public tool. It is for everyone. We know that it's used by conservatives and by liberals. It's used by students and by professors. The fact is we know that the urgent intensity of, for example, the lockdown in Covid we could see in the data, we could see which words were being looked up, the words like quarantine or scientific terms. Very poignantly a word like canceled. I think a lot of people just wanted to know is there one L or two in that word? What we can see is that the dictionary is being used by everybody and it's being used for very serious and important reasons. That really validates all of the serious work that we do to revise and maintain the dictionary. It really gives me a lot of faith in the curiosity of the public and it shows that we are paying attention.

Alison Stewart: Peter Sokolowski, he is editor at large at Merriam Webster's Dictionary. The Word of the Year, polarization. Peter, we'll talk to you next year.

Peter Sokolowski: Always a treat. Thank you.

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