WOTY2025

Carrie and Megan talk about the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year.

• TACO

Transcript

Carrie: Hi, and welcome to The Vocal Fries Podcast, the podcast about linguistic discrimination.

Megan Figueroa: I'm Megan Figueroa.

Carrie Gillon: And I'm Carrie Gillon.

Megan: Hey.

Carrie: Hey.

Megan: It's been a long week, but...

Carrie: Oh my god.

Megan: Here we are. I know.

Carrie: The beginning of 2026 is somehow even more nightmarish than I could have imagined. 

Megan: I feel like we were, on our last episode, we were saying, here's hoping 2026 isn't bonkers or as, I mean, bonkers is putting it lightly.

Carrie: Yeah. Well, I was like, I think there's going to be a vibe shift. And I do think there is.

Megan: Right.

Carrie: However...

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: I guess had to go something, some things truly horrible. Yeah.

Megan: Yeah. I don't know how my fellow humans got through this week. I couldn't focus the way I wanted to at work. It was hard. It was hard.

Carrie: Yeah. Yeah, this week was definitely hard. And yeah, for those of us outside the US, we're very scared.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: All the countries are like, which one's going to be next?

Megan: Who's next? Yeah.

Carrie: And it really looks like Greenland's next. And that is very scary for Canadians.

Megan: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I say as it should be, not because I'm threatening you, but because we have no idea what our dictator-in-chief is going to be doing next, especially, who knows? At the same time, he could be having cognitive decline. So put that on top of him just being a really evil and bad human being. That's going on.

Carrie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Did you see he said the only thing that stops him is his own morality or something like that?

Megan: Right. Which is...

Carrie: And I'm like, what morality?

Megan: Exactly.

Carrie: You're a gaping hole of need. That's all you are.

Megan: Right?

Carrie: I don't know. So before we start today's episode, I always forget, let's actually thank our newest patrons this time. 

Megan: Yeah. 

Carrie: So we have Cindy Flagg.

Megan: Thank you, Cindy.

Carrie: Katherine T. Marshall.

Megan: Thank you, Katherine.

Carrie: And Tara Perswani.

Megan: Thank you, Tara. It means so much to us as an indie podcast to have Patreon supporters.

Carrie: O'Tara.

Megan: It really helps us. O'Tara. Sorry. 

Carrie: I said it and then I was like, mm, actually, I don't know which way to pronounce that name.

Megan: Yeah. It could be either one, right? Yeah.

Carrie: But it could be either one. But yes, as an indie podcast, we have to do everything on our own and with the exception of the editing, which we have to pay someone to do. So everything helps. So thank you so much. And if anyone would like to join, we have stickers. We have mugs. 

Megan: Tons of bonus episodes at this point.

Carrie: And tons, yeah. We have over 100 bonus episodes now. So, whoo, boy.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: It seems so many. How have we been doing this for so long?

Megan: I know. I know.

Carrie: We really have.

Megan: No, I was at a little get together the other week and my friend was just proud of me. So she's like, to a person I've never met, she's like, yeah, she has a podcast. And no one takes you seriously at first when someone says that you have a podcast. And it wasn't until I told him, I was like, it's going to be 8, 9 years, 9 years this summer.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: Yeah. So we're in like eight-and-a-half years. And then all of a sudden, it was taken a little bit more seriously.

Carrie: Yeah. You have to be committed.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah. So I don't know if you saw the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year. Did you?

Megan: I did. It was my hope, my dream.

Carrie: Okay, good.

Megan: I thought it would be this. I didn't follow along on social media in any way this year because I just had serious FOMO and I was like, I can't, I can't. But yeah, I don't even know what the nominations were [crosstalk] for all these categories. 

Carrie: Okay. Well, let's go through it and we'll save the winner for last.

Megan: Yes.

Carrie: So I'm getting this all from the ADS themselves, they have a, what do you call it?

Megan: Like a press release?

Carrie: Press release.

Megan: Oh, you mean the nominee? Yeah.

Carrie: The press release. Thank you. So Most Creative Word of the Year. I'll just give them all to you. So Reheat Nachos. Have you ever heard this before?

Megan: No.

Carrie: I heard it for the very first time, I think yesterday. So I was like, oh! 

Megan: In the wild or on this?

Carrie: Well, on TikTok.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: Yeah. So separately from this. So it's to redo something as music, often in an inferior fashion. So the way I heard it was somebody claiming that Jamelle Bouie was reheating nachos as in their idea that they had, like being against ICE. Jamelle Bouie has been against ICE for a long time, like no, [crosstalk] he was not reheating your nachos.

Megan: Yeah, yeah. Right. Also, that's quite something to be claiming about anyone at this point. You got to know their history because a lot of people have been out here against ICE doing the work.

Carrie: Yeah. And he's a journalist or yeah, he's a journalist.

Megan: Yeah, he's a journalist.

Carrie: So you can look up what he's written in the past.

Megan: Yeah, wow.

Carrie: Such as like some person that you would have to do a little bit more digging, right?

Megan: Yeah. But that's a really creative word. I'll give it that. Yep. I'll give it that.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: Nachos are not as good heated up. They sure ain't. They sure ain't.

Carrie: Hmm. You know, I've never tried them reheated, I don't think, but I believe it.

Megan: Don't even try. It's the tortilla chip. They're just useless at that point.

Carrie: Yeah, you're right. They'd be, ugh. Yeah, you're right.

Megan: Yep.

Carrie: Good point.

Megan: Yep. Yep.

Carrie: Okay. Amphifa.

Megan: Mmfifa.

Carrie: Amphifa. A-M-P-H-I-F-A. I had never heard this before, but I instantly fell in love. Playful resistance movement as seen in Amphibians Against Fascism in Portland.

Megan: Oh, when they dress up like lizards and...

Carrie: Like the frog. Frog.

Megan: Oh, frog. Not lizards, dinosaurs. There's dinosaurs and frogs I've been seeing, yeah. So it's mostly the frog that we're calling out here since it's amphibian. 

Carrie: Well, yeah, because it's the amphibian, so frog, right?

Megan: Yeah, yeah.

Carrie: Yes.

Megan: That's really cute.

Carrie: Oh my god, yes.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Fridge cigarette.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: Never heard this one. Euphemism for an ice cold diet coke or similar drink taken from a refrigerator as refreshment. Makes sense?

Megan: That's so nice. It makes sense.

Carrie: Never heard of it, but I like it.

Megan: No. Yeah.

Carrie: Okay. I don't know if I know if I'm going to say this correctly. I did see this, I think only because someone Blue skeeted it, right, about this list. So before this, I had never seen this, lowkirkenuinely. In a low-key, genuine manner, it takes low-key plus Kirk as in Charlie Kirk and genuinely. Also, flowkirkenuinely. I can't say it. Flow-state plus Kirk plus genuinely. It's just not possible to say these two, so I say boo.

Megan: Yeah, they're not going to last. Also, Charlie Kirk, no, let's not give him any staying power with anything like that.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: Although Turning Point USA is going to be around, so.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: Yeah, the wife's not going away.

Carrie: The wife's taking a very weird turn. I don't think she knows. I don't know. Anyway.

Megan: Yeah. They had their annual thingy in Phoenix recently. Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah. 

Megan: I just wish they would stop coming here.

Carrie: Well, they're from Phoenix.

Megan: I know. That's why his weird memorial was here, too.

Carrie: Yeah. By the way, I saw some of the footage from outside and there was so much [crosstalk] litter on the ground.

Megan: Trash?

Carrie: I just could not believe it.

Megan: I was so mad, the one, his memorial, right?

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: Yeah, because it was at the Arizona Cardinals Stadium in the West Valley and I was just horrified because I was like, you know that all those brown people that are going to have to pick that up, that it's all the janitorial staff of the, I don't know if it's of the complex or of the stadium. I was just so pissed at all those.

Carrie: Yeah. Well, it just reminds me of Stephen Miller, you know how he had that rant when he was still in high school about, [crosstalk] why can't I just throw trash onto the ground?

Megan: Yes. 

Carrie: We've got janitors for that. It's like, what?

Megan: Exactly.

Carrie: What?

Megan: Exactly.

Carrie: So you just want to be surrounded by trash all day and wait for the janitors to pick it up at night? What? It's not pleasant.

Megan: It's not pleasant. Ultimately, he just wants to position himself above brown people.

Carrie: Of course.

Megan: Yes. Yeah, I can see him wanting to be surrounded by trash instead of, or so that he can place himself above brown people in that way.

Carrie: Yes.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Which is not doing that, but I see how he thinks he's doing that.

Megan: Right. Yeah. And then ultimately, I'm just pissed because it costs a suburb of Phoenix a ton of money to have a bunch of assholes come in and they didn't pay for it. So for the cleanup, and I don't even know who knows, but anyway.

Carrie: I'm sure it brought in a lot of money though. 

Megan: That's true.

Carrie: So that's just a lot of a lot of out-of-staters bringing in their money. So, it probably at least broke even, but still not great.

Megan: At what cost?

Carrie: Exactly.

Megan: At what cost?

Carrie: Morally bad.

Megan: Right. Exactly.

Carrie: Okay. So the top one was the winner.

Megan: Reheated nachos?

Carrie: Reheat nachos is the winner.

Megan: Reheat nachos. Okay. So it's a verb. Like, don't reheat my nachos or don't reheat nachos or like what? How do you?

Carrie: Yeah. Yeah.

Megan: How did you use it?

Carrie: Yeah. The way I heard it was he reheated my nachos.

Megan: Got it. Okay.

Carrie: Yeah. So it probably should be reheat possessor nachos, but whatever.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Okay. So I'm going to read them in a different order this time. Body tea.

Megan: Wait, wait, wait. Is this a new category?

Carrie: Sorry. Sorry. Yes. Informal word of the year. Thank you.

Megan: Okay. Okay.

Carrie: Body tea.

Megan: Body tea. Like T-E-A.

Carrie: I've never heard this one.

Megan: Like gossip or like over information.

Carrie: I like that interpretation, but no, apparently it means attractive physical appearance. Reinterpretation of her body tea. Never heard of her body tea either.

Megan: No, uh-uh.

Carrie: This only got one vote so. 

Megan: Probably the nominator of the word.

Carrie: I assume.

Megan: Yep.

Carrie: I assume. Face card.

Megan: Oh, wait, can we go back? Did reheat nachos just take it by a lot of votes?

Carrie: Actually it did have to go up to first, second round.

Megan: [inaudible]

Carrie: Okay. So yeah, first round it was still number one. Number two was Amphifa.

Megan: Because it's so cute.

Carrie: It's so cute.

Megan: Yeah. Okay. Got it. Back to informal.

Carrie: Yes. Face card.

Megan: No idea.

Carrie: I have never heard this one either. Undeniable good looks. As in face card never declined.

Megan: Can you play your face card?

Carrie: I guess.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: I don't know. Smoke.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: This one I had to read the meaning to be like, oh yeah, of course I've heard this a million times. Drama or aggression as in don't want no smoke.

Megan: Yeah. Okay. I do. I just wouldn't have thought of it as a this year or 2025 thing.

Carrie: I saw it a lot, but yeah, maybe it definitely not new, but maybe newly irrelevant. I'm not really sure. X, I fear, like, fill in the blank.

Megan: So the X could be could be anything. Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: I may have seen this.

Carrie: I know you have. Because I'm sure.

Megan: I'm trying to think of it. Think of what people said in that X. What did they fill in the blank? I don't know. What? Where have you heard it?

Carrie: I don't remember exact examples, but let me just tell you what it means. Indication of mock apprehension used for ironic effect.

Megan: Okay. Yeah.

Carrie: Yes. Yeah. Big back. A person's large body or a large bodied person as in big backery, big back behavior. Never heard this one either.

Megan: I don't even know. I don't know what to describe big back behavior as. Like what? What is that?

Carrie: Someone who's just very large and taking up a lot of space, I'm guessing.

Megan: So like on an airplane, manspreading.

Carrie: Maybe.

Megan: Little manspreading if you're in the, yeah.

Carrie: Maybe.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Although you don't need to be large to manspread.

Megan: That's true.

Carrie: And then 6, 7, which we talked about, right? 

Megan: Of course.

Carrie: So according to them, interjection containing little semantic content originating from Doot Doot (6 7) by Skrilla.

Megan: I forgot. Is it Kelly Wright, Jesse Greaser and Ben Zimmer, do they
all come up with these definitions? I know they're the main three. I think they still are.

Carrie: Good question. Not sure.

Megan: Yeah. Because Ben Zimmer writes the press release, right?

Carrie: Mm-hmm.

Megan: Yeah. Okay.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: I'm just wondering how these definitions, because that's a pretty good definition of it.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: Yeah, that's good. Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah. So the winner of informal word of the year, you could probably guess.

Megan: 6, 7.

Carrie: 6, 7. Yeah.

Megan: Yeah, and I got to imagine...

Carrie: And that one won. That one just straight up won.

Megan: Yeah. Oh yeah, I got to imagine it's not because people liked it, but because people recognize that it's obviously the informal word of the year.

Carrie: Yes. Yeah.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: The next largest was X, I fear.

Megan: Yeah. That one's very good.

Carrie: Okay. Digital word of the year.

Megan: AI slop. Is it in there? Is it in there?

Carrie: Slop is in there. slop.

Megan: Slop. slop. slop. Right. Yeah.

Carrie: Low quality, high quantity content most typically produced by generative AI, also as a combining form for anything lacking value produced in mass quantities. How else have you heard it with slop?

Megan: X slop. Are they calling it slop? Are they just saying slop? Sometimes they just use slop.

Carrie: Yeah. They're just saying slop. Which you can definitely say. You can say slop by itself or you can say AI slop. You can say clanker slop.
You could say art slop. 

Megan: Clanker as an allusion to...

Carrie: Bots.

Megan: Bots. Okay.

Carrie: Or AI. Or you could say Art slop, which means not...

Megan: AI created art?

Carrie: It could be AI created, it also just could be mass quantities just badly produced. Not art that means anything, I guess.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: Right?

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: At least that's my interpretation. But generally, we think of it as referring to AI, but I think it doesn't have to.

Megan: Right. This year, I hope people are realizing. I'll see something or my mom will show me something and I just have to be like, is that AI? We have to just question everything at this point and it's terrible. 

Carrie: Almost every time my mom shows me something, I'm like, that's AI.

Megan: I know. And I hate it because they are really cute. It's like when the rabbits were on the trampoline one.

Carrie: Right. I didn't see that one. But yeah.

Megan: Yeah. I'm just like, that's cute and that would be just adorable if that happened in real life and it's almost a question of, why? It's not exactly harmful to make something like that and share it, but it's like, why?

Carrie: Well, it is harmful. First of all, you were wasting resources for nothing, but it's also it's also harmful because now we have to question our reality.

Megan: Good point. So it's the overarching problem of questioning our reality. Yeah. Even if it's, quote unquote, harmful and that it's cute animals doing something.

Carrie: Right. So if you were to do it, animate it by hand or whatever, or whatever the previous way of doing it, in the grand scheme of things, not harmful at all, because it would probably be obvious, right?

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: That it was a man made creation. But anyway.

Megan: I think it was Frankenstein, the movie. Well, I know Guillermo del Toro has come out and said, fuck AI and that he would never use it for his movies, but I think he actually put in the credits at the end that AI was not used in the making of this film.

Carrie: Nice.

Megan: I'm not sure, but I've definitely seen it in a recent movie and I was like, yeah,

Carrie: Good.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: We're going to need that.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Because I don't know about you, but I want to avoid it as much as I can. And it's almost impossible, but I'm doing my best. 

Megan: So I have been, if I watch TV with commercials and I'm not paying attention because when commercials come on, I zone out, but then I'll hear this cadence of something. I'm like, fuck, it's AI.

Carrie: It's a clanker.

Megan: And then yeah, yeah, I'm like, they're even making commercials where they have a stock footage photo of someone where they're not even the one, it's AI speaking. And yeah, on the bottom of the screen, it did say AI was used. So, I just think that I'm surprised that it had that. I bet there's no law or anything that requires it at this point. Is there?

Carrie: There might be some. There might be a lot in one of the jurisdictions in which it runs. I don't know.

Megan: Ah, okay.

Carrie: Yeah. I get ads in some of the streaming that I have and it's a lot of gambling in Ontario ads, like, words gambling or whatever. And I always hated gambling. I'm not a gambler. I've always been somewhat morally opposed to not completely and now radicalized against gambling. 

Megan: Because of the AI or just because of inundation? 

Carrie: I think it's very dangerous. And the fact that it's so easy to gamble now. If you actually have to physically go to a location, I'm actually less worried about that. Okay, but online gambling, no. And then, yeah, on top of that, these ads, most of them seem to be AI generated and it gives me the ick. 

Megan: I didn't know that was a problem in Canada, too. It's so big here. Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah. I think online gambling has been less illegal here than in the States, I think. Okay, so we had slop. We also have clanker.

Megan: Ah, okay.

Carrie: Pejorative term for AI agents and robots. AI agents also should not even be called that, but whatever.

Megan: Right, yes, anthropomorphizing.

Carrie: Yeah, and also they don't really, I don't know, whatever. I just don't like that term. Italian brain rot. Mock Italian memes with generative AI characters like Bombardiro Crocodillo and Ballerina Cappuccina. Have no idea what this is about. I thought I was too online, but now I feel better.

Megan: Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Carrie: Great meme reset. It's a hypothetical youth movement to reset memes on January 1, 2026.

Megan: Didn't happen.

Carrie: Maybe it happened. I don't know.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Because like, we're not in those spaces. And then the algorithm.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: An essentialized view of online algorithms as a unitary deterministic entity. 

Megan: So I'm guessing the algorithm and slop were the top, but I'm guessing slop one. 

Carrie: Slop one, but actually number two is clanker.

Megan: Oh, okay.

Carrie: Yeah. You know, the algorithm is used more than clanker.

Megan: Yeah, absolutely.

Carrie: But I think maybe it just feels older. And that's what I'm going to be, I guess that's why clanker got more votes. Political word of the year.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: Taco.

Megan: Shit, what does it stand for again? Hey, I know it's been so long. I feel like this was in the beginning of 2025.

Carrie: It was closer, maybe to the middle.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: Let's see if I can find an example for you. I just want to play it.

[Video Playing] Singer: They say Trump always chickens out. They say taco. They say chicken. They say taco. They say Trump always chickens out. No, I'm not a chicken. You're the chicken. I'm not the chicken. You're the chicken. I'm not the chicken. You're the chicken. I'm not the chicken. I'm not the chicken. You're the chicken. I'm not the chicken. Mr. President. I'm not the chicken.

Megan: That's Kanye. Yes, completely chickens out. Oh, that's really funny.

Carrie: As in taco trade, which I don't think I've seen taco trade. I've only just seen taco.

Megan: No, just taco. Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah. The problem with taco is I wanted him to chicken out. So I didn't want to have people to mock him too much, but it was so funny.
So I was like, [crosstalk] kind of torn.

Megan: It was funny. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I feel like he's less tacoing now.

Carrie: Right?

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: And I'm worried that it's because of this shit is probably even has nothing to do with this shit. 

Megan: Who knows?

Carrie: But part of me, it's like, oh.

Megan: Just like how someone said that he was really upset that Maduro danced or something. Like this video clip of Maduro doing something and Trump was offended and that was the last straw for him. An insider said or something like that.

Carrie: His ego is fragile.

Megan: Fragile.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: So I wouldn't be surprised.

Carrie: Yeah, that is true. Oh, yeah. So Trump says Maduro copied his dance.

Megan: Yes. Yeah.

Carrie: But did he though?

Megan: What?

Carrie: Or was it AI?

Megan: Oh, but Trump, whatever. I think Trump believed it even if it was AI.
Right?

Carrie: Well, yeah. 100%.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: I was just going to say, was it real? And I realized I wasn't sure.
Okay. So he did actually dance, whether he was copying Trump or not, whatever, he did actually dance. And yes, he is such a little baby. 

Megan: I know.

Carrie: Okay. DOGE.

Megan: Oh, yeah.

Carrie: As a verb.

Megan: So the USAID got DOGEd?

Carrie: Right.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: Eliminate or remove due to inefficiency claims from the Department of Government Efficiency as with federal agencies like USAID and DOGE itself. Often get DOGEd.

Megan: Yeah, that's a good one.

Carrie: Vice signal.

Megan: Is that new or particularly relevant this year?

Carrie: May be particularly relevant. It's definitely not new, because I've been using it for a long, long time. But it does feel like there was more vice signaling this last year than ever before.

Megan: What did they define it as?

Carrie: Publicly promote negative or controversial news, antonym of virtue signal.

Megan: Yeah, I guess that's true that it was particularly salient this past year.

Carrie: Icy conditions. 

Megan: I've actually not heard that used politically.

Carrie: A coded phrase alerting that ICE has been spotted in a neighborhood.

Megan: Oh, I love it. Yeah.

Carrie: Disappear.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Remove, abduct, or arrest a person as by a government agent.
And Kavanaugh stop.

Megan: I don't remember what this is.

Carrie: Immigration status check in which a person is detained based on social identifiers, referring to Justice Kavanaugh's opinion in Gnome v Vazquez Perdomo.

Megan: Right. When they made it okay to racially profile guests.

Carrie: Okay.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah. So which one do you think won?

Megan: I think it was, it's not Taco, it's not Kavanaugh stop. I like icing conditions, but I don't think that's it. What was the other two? 

Carrie: Disappear and vice signal.

Megan: Disappear.

Carrie: Icy conditions.

Megan: Really?

Carrie: Mm-hmm.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: And the number two, which they went head to head, Kavanaugh stop.

Megan: Oh, okay.

Carrie: I think Kavanaugh stop actually is going to survive longer.

Megan: Well icy conditions. That almost feels like it's too cutesy for what the fuck is going on now with ICE. You know?

Carrie: Yeah, but it's just a way of getting around.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: The algorithm.

Megan: Yeah. But the algorithm has got to catch on, right?

Carrie: I guess. Yeah. Okay. Most likely to succeed.

Megan: Ah, yes.

Carrie: Performative male.

Megan: I don't know.

Carrie: I've definitely seen this. Mostly around men reading in public, which let's let men read in public, please.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Let's not mock them for doing a good thing or at least a somewhat healthy thing, depending on what they're reading.

Megan: Right. We don't want people reading Mein Kampf on the subway.

Carrie: I wasn't even thinking about that, but yeah, I was more worried about Rich Dad Poor Dad or some bullshit like that. But yes.

Megan: That's to Michael and Peter of bookstore. 

Carrie: Yes. That was the list of books I was going through in my head.

Megan: Yeah, exactly.

Carrie: A man who superficially appeals to progressive or sensitive ideals through aesthetic presentation. Now yes, this is a thing, but again, I've only seen it around reading, which I'm like, let's not complain about that. And, honestly, the other stuff, yeah, it's problematic, but it's also not new. We just don't use this term for it, I guess. 

Megan: Totally, it just reminds me of the Portlandia skit where they're talking about, did you read the new New Yorker article on?

Carrie: Yes.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Or like men who call themselves feminist but aren't.

Megan: Yes.

Carrie: Unc.

Megan: Unc?

Carrie: U-N-C, unc.

Megan: Uncle?

Carrie: Mm-hmm. 

Megan: I don't know the rest. What does it mean?

Carrie: So I have heard it a long time ago and it meant uncle, but now it has expanded out to any old person. So, originally, it was an AAVE shortening of uncle, but it's now gender neutral.

Megan: I love it.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: So like someone who you have a good relationship with. Is that implied or?

Carrie: I assume it is a term of endearment, but I don't actually know that for sure.

Megan: Yeah. It feels like [crosstalk] it, but yeah.

Carrie: It feels like. So I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to count as an unc. So this feels weird. Oh, did I say that this is most likely to succeed?

Megan: Yes, you did.

Carrie: Okay. Okay, good. 

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Okay, good. Jeez. Vibe coding. We talked about this. So use of an AI agent to code or assist in coding by using natural language prompts. Chopped. We talked about this one. Do you remember?
Ugly or undesirable?

Megan: Yes. Yeah, that just is not sticking because it doesn't make any sense to me.

Carrie: I don't know. You just have to hear it in context and you're like, oh, because I do have that word passively in my vocabulary now. And then glaze. So this one is definitely, I saw this a lot, effusively compliment in a cringe-worthy fashion.

Megan: Because of all the people around Trump?

Carrie: People are glazing Elon. They're glazing AI. They're glazing Trump, whatever.

Megan: So it doesn't have to be a person?

Carrie: No, I don't think so.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: I'm pretty sure I've seen it for non. I think it's more likely to be cringe-worthy about a person, but not necessarily. 

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: So which one do you think won?

Megan: None of these feel... Vibe coding.

Carrie: Nope, chopped.

Megan: Okay. Okay. People feel like it's going to last.

Carrie: I think so. I've heard it enough now and I've heard it from people closer to my age. I think, yeah, probably. Okay. Most useful. Rage bait.

Megan: Yeah, that's very useful.

Carrie: And how would you define that?

Megan: It's one of those words that I've seen so much and even used where I'm like, I don't even know how I would define it.

Carrie: Content that intentionally evokes rage often in a taunting way.

Megan: Oh, the taunting way. Okay.

Carrie: Yeah, you're not usually going to rage bait without wanting to make someone feel bad, I feel like. Clock as a verb. 

Megan: Like you clock someone? You notice what they're, yeah, okay.

Carrie: Notice or recognize often calling attention to a subtext. 

Megan: Which is super old.

Carrie: Yeah, I don't know if there was a new meaning, a slightly new meaning that evolved this past year or if it just was used more. But I agree that it's been around. Clock has definitely been around as a verb to mean to recognize something.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: But, I don't know. Diabolical.

Megan: I don't know in this context.

Carrie: Evil in a fun or shocking way can be used as an exclamation, diabolical.

Megan: Okay. Okay. Is that from a movie or something?

Carrie: I don't know, but I've definitely seen people say diabolical slightly more than I have in the past. Yeah. I don't know if it's taken on, yeah, if it comes from something in particular or taken on in a slightly new meaning or what, but it definitely felt more prevalent. That's AI in quotation marks.

Megan: Oh, like someone shares something with you and you say that's AI.

Carrie: Yeah, which I've literally said so many times.

Megan: I know, I know.

Carrie: My mother.

Megan: Yeah, yeah. That is useful.

Carrie: Yep. A statement of distrust when determining that something presented as real as an image is in fact AI generated. Recession indicator.

Megan: I don't know. I don't know in this new context.

Carrie: It's not new. A signal of an impending economic downturn often attributed humorously to cultural and fashion trends.

Megan: Okay.

Carrie: So I guess that maybe the attributing it to silly things is new.

Megan: Yeah, the latter part is, yeah, okay. 

Carrie: I don't know what would be an example of recession indicator that would be funny. 

Megan: Would it be like the mullet is back if that's a recession indicator?

Carrie: Maybe.

Megan: It's not.

Carrie: You know what is this recession indicator is lipstick sales going up.

Megan: Oh!

Carrie: Yeah, because it's cheap enough that you can give yourself a little treat. Yeah.

Megan: That makes me sad.

Carrie: Yeah. Rot as a verb. How would you?

Megan: Like bed rot?

Carrie: Yeah. So lounge and scroll social media evoking brain rot and bed rot. So you're just rotting.

Megan: Yep. My God. I've done so much of that past year.

Carrie: Unfortunately, me too. And then valid crash out.

Megan: Is that just being exhausted because the world is horrible?

Carrie: A little bit more extreme, a justified mental breakdown. So you see people crashing out online all the time, but a valid crash out would be well, this is justified.

Megan: Yeah, gestures around. Yeah.

Carrie: Yeah. So which one do you think won?

Megan: Rage bait.

Carrie: No, that's AI.

Megan: What?

Carrie: That's AI. Unfortunately, it's so obvious if you're going to just keep using that one. 

Megan: And can I just say that that's AI. The ADS, the American Dialect Society, always has the best word of the year because it does have things like that's AI. I feel like the dictionaries are just really tied to a specific idea of what a word is or linguists are coming in and being like, yeah. 

Carrie: Although AI slop won one of the dictionaries. That's technically two words, right?

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: I had to point out in someone's TikTok, no, it's okay. We define words in all kinds of different ways.

Megan: Exactly.

Carrie: And sometimes it's not what you think anyway. A word is not what you think.

Megan: Right.

Carrie: He then mocked me. But anyway. Okay. Word of the year, do, do, do, do. So we already know.

Megan: And then word of the year is taking from all the categories, right?

Carrie: You have to nominate it still separately.

Megan: Okay. Okay. So what were the nominees?

Carrie: So we already knew which one won, slop. Low quality, high quantity content, most typically produced by generative AI, also as a combining form for anything lacking value produced in mass quantities. So the other nominees, the algorithm.

Megan: Okay. Even though it didn't win its category.

Carrie: Yeah. It doesn't have to win its category.

Megan: It's true. Yeah. I'm just wondering what the nominator, what the argument was.

Carrie: Yeah. Unfortunately, we weren't there.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: A centralized view of online algorithms as a unitary deterministic entity. Amphifa. Again, playful resistant movement as seen in Amphibians Against Fascism in Portland. DOGE.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: Again, eliminate or remove due to inefficiency claims from the Department of Government Efficiency as with federal agencies like USAID and DOGE itself often get DOGEd. Rage bait.

Megan: Okay. Yeah.

Carrie: Content that intentionally evokes rage often in a taunting way. Reheat nachos. 

Megan: I love reheat nachos. I think this is my favorite thing coming out of this.

Carrie: Redo something as music often in an inferior fashion. And then 6-7. Again, an introduction containing a little semantic content originating from Doot Doot (6 7) by Skrilla. So which one do you think came in second?

Megan: Rage bait.

Carrie: Yes.

Megan: Okay. But it wasn't a runoff, I bet.

Carrie: No, it was a runoff between those two.

Megan: It was a runoff? 

Carrie: Mm-hmm.

Megan: Okay. Okay.

Carrie: Yeah. So yeah, slop.

Megan: Yeah, I think when we did the last episode, I was like, that's what
I feel like my word of the year is. 

Carrie: Yeah, you said AI slop because that's what it was.

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: But yes. And which one did I like best? I don't even remember now. I don't remember. 

Megan: It feels like years ago. It's been a rough week.

Carrie: Feels like years ago. Oh my god. Oh my god. One of my favorite TikToks was I would like to return my or cancel my subscription for 2026, this first seven days, it's been bad.

Megan: Yes. Exactly. Oh, my God. So true.

Carrie: Oh boy.

Megan: Yeah. Oh, but I love the, I love the word of the year as done by the American Dialect Society. It's very cool.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: Men's creation.

Carrie: It's a really fun time and I'm sad that neither of us could be there.

Megan: Yeah. Yeah. How many have you been to?

Carrie: I don't remember. Four maybe.

Megan: Yeah. I think I've been to three. They're very cool.

Carrie: They're fun.

Megan: They're fun.

Carrie: They're definitely fun. And you want to see academics get excited, but not too angry. 

Megan: Well, I was going to say it's a, it's an intellectual activity. It's a fun activity. It's both of those things because yeah, you hear the people and their arguments and it's like, it's both, it scratches your brain and it gives you a laugh.

Carrie: Oh, and a part of the fun is what's his name? The guy who just types.

Megan: Oh my goodness. Oh, I'm so sorry. What's his name?

Carrie: Is it Grant something?

Megan: It's Grant. It's Grant Barrett. Okay.

Carrie: Grant Barrett.

Megan: Erase, erase us not knowing Grant's name. Yeah, no.

Carrie: Yeah. So Grant Barrett just sitting there typing everything and making all the [crosstalk] snide comments and then deleting them.

Megan: It's one of those parts.

Carrie: It's so good.

Megan: It's so good. It's so good.

Carrie: If only more conferences were like that.

Megan: I know. I know.

Carrie: Well, we've had an interesting start to 2026. I'm hoping things go in a different direction.

Megan: Me too. Yeah. Let's have those vibes shift.

Carrie: Yeah.

Megan: Let's have those vibes shift.

Carrie: Yes. Where are the Etsy witches when we need them?

Megan: Exactly. All right.

Carrie: Okay. All right. Well, everybody have a good rest of January. 

Megan: Yeah.

Carrie: See you next month.

Megan: See you next month. And don't be an asshole.

Carrie: Don't be an asshole. The Vocal Fries Podcast is produced by me, Carrie Gillon. Theme music by Nick Granum. You can find us on Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at vocalfriespod. You can email us at vocalfriespod@gmail.com and our website is vocalfriespod.com.

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