- Demure was part of a viral sensation this summer
- TikTokker Jools LeBron is credited with starting the sensation
- The word beat competition from other viral trends such as brat
One of the biggest viral sensations of the summer was Jools Lebron’s TikToks on how to be ‘demure’ – and now the word has been named dictionary.com’s word of the year.
Very demure, very mindful
Back in August, LeBron won a place in the hearts and psyches of social media users, after sharing clips of how to be a very “demure” and “mindful” person.
Under the username Joolieannie, Lebron posted a video titled ‘How to be demure at work’ on August 2.
Giving pointers like laying her wig down and doing her makeup properly, Jools pointed out she’s being “very demure, very mindful” about her look, reminding viewers, “Let’s not forget to be demure, divas.”
While demure has traditionally meant reserved or modest individuals, it took on an expanded meaning this summer to encompass refined or sophisticated appearances or behaviors.
Strong competition
Demure beat off some strong competition to the Dictionary.com accolade. Also on the shortlist was another word of the summer – brat. Popularised by the Charli XCX album of the same name, it really took hold when she tweeted ‘Kamala IS brat’, in reference to the Democrat presidential nominee. Rather than its traditional meaning of a spoilt young person, it now refers to a person who is confidently rebellious, unapologetically bold and playfully defiant.
Brat was named word of the year by Collins Dictionary earlier this month.
Other words on the shortlist were:
- Brainrot: the effects of spending too much time watching low-quality content on social media. Can also apply to the content itself. Increased in popularity due to generation alpha’s digital habits
- Extreme weather: a period of weather or weather event that is severe and unusual for the location and/or season it occurs in
- Midwest nice: a courteous and agreeable manner, usually involving politeness and avoiding conflict
- Weird: strange or bizarre.
To make the choice, lexicographers at Dictionary.com analyzed huge amounts of data – including new headlines, search engine results and social media trends – to highlight the words that captured the moments of 2024. Demure’s use in social media increased by 1,200% between January and August, which was largely attributed to LeBron.
Other recent words of the year have included hallucinate (2023), woman (2022) and allyship (2021).
