Well, the votes for 2024 have now been cast and counted, and the results released to an anxious world. The results of that vote have already begun to unravel the threads of our civilization, pitting some of the largest and most-respected organizations in society against each other in fury and rage, the consequences of which will be hotly debated at high- decibel levels with undercurrents of revolution and chaos in the coming year.

I’m speaking, of course, not about the presidential election, but about the release of the Word of the Year by Dictionary.com, the world’s leading digital dictionary, and by the Oxford University Press, one of the world’s most-respected academic publishers. The two organizations analyzed extensive data in an effort to determine the one word that would most clearly capture the cultural zeitgeist that has been 2024.

The pointy-headed lexicographers at Dictionary.com selected “demure” as their Word of the Year. Demure won out over runners-up “brat,” “extreme weather,” “Midwest nice,” “brainrot” and “weird.”

Let me pause here to note the obvious problem with Dictionary.com’s Final Six Words of the Year – two of them aren’t actually singular words but two-word phrases, and the contest isn’t called “Phrases of the Year.” I’ll let this flagrant abuse of language go this time since Dictionary.com’s winner is an actual word, although I was surprised that demure is considered anybody’s Word of the Year.

It appears that “demure” was boosted to the top of the word heap and became a pop culture phenomenon after an online beauty influencer named “Jools Lebron” released a 38-second video in August on TikTok about how to be demure and modest in the workplace. According to Dictionary.com, Google searches for “demure grew 14-fold after Lebron’s clip went viral, and its usage in digital media surged some 1,200% between January and August.

Those are impressive numbers, and I say that while happily admitting that I don’t know what a beauty influencer is or does or how one goes about becoming one. I have not seen the video. I have never voluntarily seen a TikTok video. Until recently, I thought TikTok was a Chinese alarm clock company.

At Oxford University Press, word crunchers used a secretive mixture of online language analysis and a popular vote to come up with “brainrot” as their Word of the Year. “Brainrot” refers to the deterioration of one’s intellectual faculties, especially as a result of overconsumption of material, particularly material in the form of frothy online content considered to be trivial and mentally unchallenging.

“Brainrot” enjoyed a 230% increase in usage in 2024, according to Oxford’s crack team of gown-and-wingtip-wearing wordsmiths. Oxford’s other finalists included “slop,” “dynamic pricing,” and “romantasy.” (Again with the two-word phrases.)

I can’t help but think that Oxford’s selection of “brainrot” was a not-so-veiled shot at Dictionary.com’s selection of demure since “brainrot” describes a mental condition that is likely to occur precisely in the sort of people who regularly watch 38-second TikTok videos.

I think Oxford University Press’s choice of “brainrot” over “demure” is the better choice. But I would also note that Oxford’s Word of the Year for 2023 was “Rizz,” allegedly a riff on the word “charisma” used to describe an enhanced ability to attract or seduce another person. I did not read, nor did I hear anyone speak the word “Rizz” in 2023, or in 2024 for that matter, and so I have some doubts about the reliability of Oxford’s vaunted language analysis and popular vote methodology. On the other hand, it’s possible that I never heard the word rizz used because I don’t project any personal “rizz” or routinely travel in “rizz” circles.

I guess we’ll all have to wait until the good folks at Merriam-Webster and The American Dialect Society weigh in with their Words of the Year to know whether “demure” or “brainrot” will reign supreme in the contest for 2024 American word supremacy. I know, the suspense is killing me too, but I’ll be trying hard to manage my excitement and anticipation demurely.

Tom Tyner of Bainbridge Island writes a weekly humor column for this newspaper.