Some of the latest trendy words and terms that are now official.
Lily Rose Depp, Jack Quaid and Jamie Lee Curtis JULIEN M. HEKIMIAN/GETTY IMAGES; VIVIEN KILLILEA/GETTY IMAGES; STEPHANE CARDINALE – CORBIS/CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES
Nepo baby, the controversial term for a successful celebrity with at least one famous parent, has been added to the dictionary.
Officially, its definition is “a celebrity with a parent who is also famous, especially one whose industry connections are perceived as essential to their success.”
The term was popularized by a New York cover story last December, and has since resulted in a fair amount of debate.
This week, actress Maya Hawke, daughter of Ethan and Uma Thurman, was asked about the term while promoting their new movie Wildcat in Venice Film Fest: “I had moments of insecurity about it while we were shooting the movie. But the internet doesn’t have a lot of nuances. My dad has been a massive teacher for me, and we want to work together.”
Lily Rose-Depp (Johnny’s daughter) has said that the label is sexist: “I just hear it a lot more about women, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”
Jamie Lee Curtis has said, “The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt,” but later embraced the term.
“Nepo Baby” was one of 500 new entries added to Dictionary.com for the fall of 2023.
Some were familiar and technological, such as “generative AI,” “chatbot” and “algo.”
Polysexual Vs. Autosexual
Some terms were from the areas of sex and gender, such as polysexual (adj. noting or relating to a person who is sexually attracted to people of various genders, but not necessarily to people of all genders.
Autosexual, noting or relating to a person who primarily feels sexual attraction to and desire for themselves.
Others are from the area of health and wellness, like biohacking (n. strategic biological experimentation, especially upon oneself), decision fatigue (n. mental and emotional exhaustion resulting from excessive or relentless decision-making).
There were also some weird ones, such as shower orange (n. an orange that is peeled and eaten under a steamy shower, the purported benefit being that the steam enhances the orange’s citrusy fragrance and creates a soothing experience for the person who is showering).
Other notably entries include the handy blursday (n. a day not easily distinguished from other days, or the phenomenon of days running together), pessimize (v. the opposite of optimize; to make less good, efficient, fast, functional), sonder (n. the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles), and agelast (n. a person who never laughs)
