Zhongxin. com, December 30th (Meng Xiangjun, Chen Caixia) If you use one word to describe the past 2023, what is the word of the year in your mind?
At the end of the year, the annual hot word list of many platforms around the world gives a variety of answers, which is a footnote for the upcoming 2023.
These hot words "expensive", "cheating", "forgetting righteousness at the expense of profit" and "AI" not only reflect people’s thoughts and answers about their own lives, social changes and human development, but also profoundly highlight people’s concerns about various crises and challenges at present and in the future.
"illusion" and "reality";
AI keyword search volume surged.
"Former US President Trump was arrested in the streets of new york", "Indian Prime Minister Modi danced traditional dance" and "Biden announced the beginning of the Third World War" … Since 2023, pictures and videos made by generative AI have appeared on the Internet, which is hard to distinguish between true and false.
In the past year, AI-related products have emerged in an endless stream, with artificial intelligence paintings all over the network, chat robots that know everything, digital people who broadcast goods 24 hours a day … Artificial intelligence technology has flourished and integrated into thousands of industries. In this context, the three dictionaries, Collins Dictionary, Cambridge Dictionary and Webster’s Dictionary, rarely reach an agreement-the selected words of the year are all related to artificial intelligence (AI).
On November 1st, American Collins Dictionary announced that the word of the year in 2023 was "artificial intelligence". According to Collins Dictionary, "AI is regarded as the representative of the next technological revolution, which develops rapidly and becomes the topic in 2023."
On November 15th, the British Cambridge Dictionary also named the word of the year-"hallucinate". The word is also related to artificial intelligence. The traditional definition of hallucinate is "something that seems to see, hear, feel or smell that doesn’t exist, usually because of health reasons or taking drugs", but now the dictionary has added a new definition to it, that is, "false information produced by artificial intelligence".
Webster’s Dictionary announced on November 27th that its annual vocabulary was "authentic". According to Webster’s publishing company, authentic was also a hot word in previous years, but in 2023, artificial intelligence technology became a hot topic, and the search volume of this word surged.
Peter sokolovski, a special editor of Webster’s Dictionary, said, "We regard 2023 as a year when authenticity is in crisis." In his view, when people doubt the authenticity of things more and more, they pay more and more attention to authenticity.
As Kevin Ruth, a science and technology writer in The New York Times, said, "I feel an ominous premonition that AI has crossed a threshold and the world will never be the same."
The "recorder" of social change
Asia pays more attention to the present and crisis.
Looking forward to the changes brought about by scientific and technological innovation to mankind, it seems that it is somewhat difficult to ponder. People in many areas seem to have a more pragmatic vision and pay more attention to the present. "Tax", "Cheating" and "Forgetting righteousness for profit" … What are the stories behind the annual vocabulary selected by Asian countries?
On December 10th, the 2023 idiom published by South Korea’s Professor News was "Forgetting righteousness for profit". The recommendation committee composed of 20 Korean university professors recommended 26 idioms, and Professor News selected 5 idioms to conduct a questionnaire survey among 1315 Korean university professors. The results show that "seeing profit and forgetting righteousness" ranks first.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Byung ki Kim, an honorary professor at Jeonbuk University who recommended "forgetting righteousness over profit", said, "Korean politicians pay more attention to their own interests than guiding the people correctly. These politicians formulate and implement policies in a direction that is beneficial to their own interests. "
On the same day, the Chinese character of Malaysia in 2023 was announced and the word "Gui" was elected. Wu Tianquan, president of the Chinese General Assembly Hall in Malaysia, said that people chose "Gui" as the Chinese character of the year, indicating that rising prices have become a livelihood issue, and the government should pay more attention to people with economic pressure and provide them with more welfare measures.
On December 12th, the abbot of Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto wrote the word "tax" at the annual Chinese character conference in Japan. After 2014, the word "tax" was elected as the Japanese Chinese character of the year for the second time.
The Japanese Chinese Character Proficiency Testing Association believes that in the past year, there have been endless discussions about tax increase in Japan, plus the government’s one-time fixed tax reduction for taxes such as income tax, as well as the reform of the consumption tax invoice system and the strictness of the tax audit benchmark in hometown, which have triggered heated discussions in society.
Japan’s "Kyoto News" reported that the word "tax" reflected the anxiety and annoyance of the Japanese people over the debate on tax increase and tax reduction this year.
On December 25th, Lianhe Zaobao of Singapore announced the voting results of Chinese characters for the year of "Word Narrating One Year" in 2023, and the word "Cheat" was elected as the Chinese character of Singapore in 2023.
According to data released by Scam Advisor, a global anti-fraud alliance and data service provider, in October 2023, from August 2022 to August 2023, fraud gangs defrauded S $1.4 trillion (about 7.54 trillion RMB) in the world, while Singapore lost about S $5,538 per capita, the highest in the world.
Li Huiling, president of Singapore Chinese Media Group, said that "cheating" is a global behavior and a moral issue. "Now fraudsters don’t even have to take a look at the deceived object, and fraud is even more insensitive." Li Huiling believes that human beings spend more energy and resources on researching and developing new technologies and discussing climate change, but lack reflection on more essential human nature issues.
Internet slang became popular.
Touch the beating pulse of "Generation Z"
According to The New York Times, on December 3rd, Oxford University Press, the second oldest academic publishing house in the world, chose the online buzzword "rizz" as its word of the year.
According to the report, "rizz", a slang term commonly used in emerging networks, means "style, charm, attraction" or "ability to attract romantic partners or sexual partners". This word is taken from the middle part of the English word "charisma".
In June, 2023, British actor Tom Holland, who starred in the Spider-Man series, contributed to the word with fire. In an interview, he said, "I have no rizz (charm), and my rizz (charm) is limited." With the video circulating on the Internet, this word is used very frequently.
According to the data of Oxford University Press, compared with the previous year, the overall usage of the word rizz has increased by about 15 times, and a large number of expression packs have been ignited.
"The choice of 2023 reflects how social media has accelerated the pace of language change exponentially," said kasper grath Wall, president of Oxford Language Publishing Group.
China’s "Generation Z" also has its own key words of the year. A few days ago, the editorial department of Shanghai’s "Talking about Words" launched the top ten buzzwords of the year.
Commando-style tourism, conspicuous bags, wearing dopamine, taking a child, emotional value … These online hot words are funny, self-deprecating or open-minded, but they vividly describe the living conditions of young people in China. Among a bunch of key words in 2023, which one do you prefer? Come and sit in the right place! (End)