…and afterthoughts
My un-asked for, scrambled words of the year for 2025 appear in the wordcloud above. Not based on statistical surveys, frequency scans or media prominence, but on the instincts and intuition of a logophile and lexicographer. As I write I realise that I have omitted several other last-minute candidates, featuring in the end-of-year online discourse: vice-signalling, shroud-waving, microshifting and tablescaping, plus a runner-up, sponcon (= sponsored content) that is well established in corporate jargon and marketing-speak, but seemingly still trending.
As the winter solstice came and went I was quoted once or twice in mainstream media’s reviews of the year’s language…
In Lane Greene‘s discussion of slang and its significance…
And in Eleanor Noyce‘s piece for Metro…
(I have helped several other journalists during late December with word-related articles and will post them here as they appear)
tony thorne 