Cambridge’s Word of the Year Is Partially Inspired by Taylor Swift
Since 2015, the Cambridge Dictionary has released a Word of the Year, and Taylor Swift inspired it, at least a little bit. Cambridge relies on search patterns, determining the most influential word of the year based on what people online want to know. Here’s how a spike in searches related to Swift’s engagement to Travis Kelce inspired the dictionary’s choice.
Cambridge used Taylor Swift and her fans as an example for their Word of the Year
The Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year is likely one that people in online fandoms know quite well. The word is “parasocial,” an adjective “involving or relating to a connection that someone feels between themselves and a famous person they do not know, a character in a book, film, TV series, etc., or an artificial intelligence.”
Several of this year’s pop culture moments inspired the choice. In June, a fan of IShowSpeed posted a thread about the YouTube streamer’s split from his girlfriend, Vanessa. This prompted the streamer to block the fan. She begged IShowSpeed to unblock her, prompting the searches.
Other spikes for “parasocial” this year include searches for people’s relationships with Grok on X (formerly Twitter) and for warnings from attorney generals that companies would be held accountable if they did not protect minors against “chatbot parasocial relationships.”
People also associated “parasocial” with searches for Swift’s engagement to Kelce. On Aug. 26, Swift and Kelce announced their intent to marry. Many fans joked about having a “parasocial” relationship with the singer in the aftermath, driving up searches for the word.
Previous Cambridge Words of the Year include “populism,” “upcycling,” and “quarantine.”
