what do justice, goblin mode, vax, & parasocial share in common?

Read time: 3 minutes

merry morning friend,

always blows my wind how reading one article can change your trajectory.

99% of what i read is a distraction or if i’m really honest a procrastination.

but sometimes, like last week, an article comes back to me after years. or like this week one headline gets one word stuck in my mind like the hardest wordle ever.

”authentic” is the word of year.

word of the year

quick background to start. every year since 1990, most major dictionaries reveal the “word(s) of the year” aka WotY.

for 2023, the cambridge dictionary picked “hallucinate.”

the collins english dictionary picked “AI.”

the merriam-webster dictionary picked “authentic.”

according to their press release, it was one of the most looked-up words in 2023. which they define as…

they attribute the high number of searches to the fact that authentic is very challenging to define & subject to much debate.

the selection of this word is of course linked to taylor swift too. and even includes a specific mention to this forbes article: “three ways to tap into taylor swift’s authenticity & build an eras-like workplace.”

words of prior years

before i started to really think about this word, i wanted to know the prior words. so icymi all the other years, here are the WotY from merriam-webster for the past 10 years:

fascinating to see the swing from last year’s gaslighting to authentic, but guess they are both related to understanding what is real.

over the past decade, the words tend to be more elusive, except during covid when only one thing was on our minds.

remember this list does vary by dictionary

my other favortie was from oxford dictionary (which has yet to announce the 2023 word), but their prior winners include: goblin mode (2022), vax (2021), climate emergency (2019), toxic (2018), youthquake (2017), post-truth (2016), & this emoji 😂 (2015).

an emoji that is despised by gen Z & shows your age as a millennial.

runner up words

before diving deep into authentic, i felt i would be amiss not to share the other top contenders for this year.

in fact, merriam-webster picks 10 or more words every year, but only one gets the crown. here were the other front runners this year:

• X

• rizz

• EGOT

• indict

• implode

• deepfake

• dystopian

• coronation

• doppelgänger

meanwhile, oxford dictionary has yet to announce their top pick, but did share their final 8 contenders:

• rizz

• swiftie

• prompt

• beige flag

• parasocial

• heat dome

• situationship

• de-influencing

i bet (& hope) swiftie wins oxford.

what authenticity isn’t

now back to THE word that’s living rent free in my mind along with all the taylor swift lyrics.

authentic.

i find the dictionary definition very unhelpful. so i started thinking through the antitheses of authenticity:

• authenticity isn’t easy

• authenticity isn’t static

• authenticity isn’t always liked

• authenticity isn’t performance

• authenticity isn’t a destination

• authenticity isn’t seeking approval

• authenticity isn’t blunt honesty without regard for others

• authenticity isn’t our filtered & edited lives on social media

• authenticity isn’t conforming to what others expect from us

we do a pretty good job of sensing what isn’t authentic, what many loving call their bullshit detectors.

but just because we can spot a fake, doesn’t mean we know what’s real.

it’s similar to how we know when we see a bad design yet are clueless on how to fix it. or why we so often follow this logic:

what authenticity is

i’d argue we do a pretty bad job at sensing what is authentic.

because authenticity is an inherently complex cocktail of intentions, actions, & perceptions. just how others may guess or get a feeling that you’re in love. in truth, only you know how you feel & if you’re in love.

only you can know if something is authentic to you.

authenticity is deeply internal.

and i believe that true authenticity requires intimate & brutal self-awareness. authenticity is both knowing & living by who you really are in essence.

here’s how i’d define authenticity:

• authenticity is hard

• authenticity is a journey

• authenticity is presence

• authenticity is owning “it”

• authenticity is being in flow

• authenticity is ever-evolving

• authenticity is being self-true

• authenticity is honesty with empathy

• authenticity is space for change, learning, & even contradiction

• authenticity is this poem…

meet the authenticity artichoke

the process of finding your authentic self is often described as peeling back the layers of onion. which is fitting given it’s often very flavorful & tear-triggering.

i prefer to think of it as an authenticity artichoke.

because the heart of authenticity is discovered by navigating our complex layers of personality, beliefs, experiences, & relationships. the heart of authenticity is our essence we are born with.

so for the next several weeks we’re going gently peel back & chew on the authenticity artichoke leaves. exploring what authenticity means in friendship, love, family, work, & self.

be very merry,

p.s. last chance to get my stunning foil holiday cards in a timely manner. so shop now!

p.p.s. next week i’m writing on self-authenticity & curious where you stand. will you pretty pretty please answer my poll?