It’s “word of the year” time, so I was hoping to offer you mine, but I appear to have only learned one new expression in 2024: zwizz de cachalot, sperm whale penis, in French-Canadian slang. It came from a TikTok of a woman explaining that the kraken legend might be attributable to sightings of “cachalot zwizzes”. I’m living evidence of why “brain rot” triumphed as this year’s Oxford University Press choice.
So, instead, I have chosen a word for lexical banishment: buddy. “I’ll refund that back on to your card, buddy,” a car rental operative said to my husband last weekend. My husband didn’t notice, or mind, but I found myself stiffening into full flared nostril, Countess of Grantham outrage. “How dare you, sir. My spouse is not your ‘buddy’!” (Obviously I didn’t actually say anything.)
