>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Well, our connection this hour is with an annual list of words or phrases.

If you're a longtime listener of this show, you know that at the end of the calendar year, we like to explore some of the new words and phrases that have been added to official dictionaries in the past year.

We're talking Cambridge, the Oxford English Dictionary, Dictionary.com, and a few more.

Unless you're part of Gen Alpha, you might think we're lilulu, but language evolves and so will we on this program.

So settle in for some inspo this hour and take our annual New Words quiz to see how you do.

Maybe you'll think it's 6 or 7.

I don't even really know what that means still.

Or maybe you'll think it's fire and you'll do really, really well and you'll end up with main character energy.

So I'd like to welcome our guests this hour.

Linda Sue Park is in the studio.

In the studio.

Author Linda Sue Park.

Multi-time champion.

Thank you for being in the studio.

How are you?

>> Delighted to be here.

>> Yeah, I feel a lot of inspired from is that do people say that?

Chris Fanning you're shaking your head?

>> I don't think they say it like that.

>> Okay, inspo.

>> In Boston Spa.

>> I've got in spa inspo.

>>, inspo, inspo.

>> I've heard like inspirational inspo in spa is what's being used now correct?

How'd that vowel change come around?

>> I feel like you should be the final editor Amanda Chestnut of every one of these dictionaries who are trying to expand, because I feel like you'd hold them to the fire.

>> I feel like there's a lot of professionals already involved in that.

>> Probably.

So Amanda probably has won in the past, although who knows?

It's kind of like Whose Line is it anyway?

We don't.

We kind of keep score.

Curator.

Author.

Educator.

Welcome back to you.

>> Thank you so much for having me.

>> And Chris Fanning always has main character energy.

As the deputy director of Writers and Books, I actually is.

You said that like it's an insult.

Is that an insult?

>> I can be.

>> Yeah, I think it sounds a little.

>> Oh, like.

>> Self-important.

>> Oh yeah.

So sometimes main character energy is cool, but only when you're a celebrity.

It's if you've got main character energy and you're an everyday guy.

>> You're doing the.

>> Spotlight, okay?

>> You're doing too much.

>> What I've heard I hadn't heard main character energy.

I've heard main character syndrome, which is like you always make everything about yourself.

So okay, so no main character energy for Chris.

>> Not.

>> I would like to amend the record.

Not on purpose.

I'd like to amend the record.

Dictionary.com.

Word of the year is six seven.

It's the word of the year.

Like why this is going to be going.

Oh, come on, Amanda, this is going to be ephemeral, right?

This is going to vanish in the wind, right?

>> Oh, it's my time to shine.

So to understand.

Six seven Ohio toilet.

>> Here we go.

>> You also have to have an understanding of post-World War One Dadaism.

>> Are you serious?

>> Yes.

>> Post World War I Dadaism.

>> Okay, so if you look at Dada, particularly performance art, but also visual art, Dadaism arose as being anti-fascist because it is inherently dependent on destroying and moving away from cultural and societal norms and fascism specifically hinges on a group cultural understanding of having the same goals.

So when you look at things like Italian futurism, which arose in the same era as Dadaism, it was very much about building a very specific identity and was really very much embraced by fascism.

So when you look at contemporary Italian futurism, that's mostly done with A.I.

art, with A.I.

models trained on fascist information.

This art also develops in having fascist leaning tendencies.

So we have this emergence of these two very popular, very parallel, sometimes Venn diagram, overlapping art forms in language and visual art.

memes, basically, that parallels the emergence of Dadaism and Futurism in the 1920s.

So this, this absurdism is really a movement away from the social structures that have put in place the capacity for fascism.

>> That's what I was going to say.

But okay, that's amazing, because I think what you're saying as your student is obviously the kids who I heard all summer saying six, seven and giggling weren't thinking about Italian Futurism, but they were thinking about something disruptive.

Yes.

You know, as a way of this in-joke for this generation.

Yes.

Was a way of sort of breaking the perfectly uniform social order.

>> Correct?

Absolutely correct.

The sillier the better, because.

>> It.

>> Didn't have to have a meaning.

>> It doesn't.

It's very specific.

>> The point is wondering what the meaning was.

>> No, the point is to not have a meaning.

And the closer you get to know meaning, the better you are doing at Dadaism.

>> Now, having said all that, we can kill it.

How?

>> Say it ourselves.

And I say ourselves as as an adult in the room.

This is, this is, this is one for the parents, the grandparents, the teachers.

When when we start to use that language, it is much less silly.

It takes the fun out of the game.

>> It takes the fun out of the game.

>> But also that means the language will continue to evolve, right?

>> And so can I ask all three of you before we start the quiz?

And we're going to do the quiz here in a moment.

And it's going to be lovely.

and it's going to be great.

And listeners, you can take the quiz right along with us, but shouldn't the word of the year be something that should be durable?

Because I feel like six seven to your point, is going to vanish.

And then years from now, people are going to look at the word of the year and go, what?

>> I think that word of the year, including liminal years, is something that happens.

I still use the word nothingburger, but it is much less prominent than it was when we did.

Our first wasn't nothingburger on the first show like, how many years ago?

Yeah, yeah.

and the word of the year is, is a historical marker.

It doesn't have to be something that lasts into perpetuity.

It's, I think, better, something that reflects the current cultural milieu.

>> What do you think Linda Sue.

>> That's what I was going to say.

I was going to say that it depends on a word of the year.

Could have a couple.

Depends on who's doing the picking.

Right.

It could be something that you think is going to endure and will mark our time in that way.

Or it could be something that's ephemeral, almost not on purpose.

But you know what I mean.

It's that it's just meant to mark this year.

So six seven definitely does that.

Right.

It's not 2024.

And it's probably not going to be 2026.

>> Yeah.

>> It's definitely a marker of the year 2025 okay.

>> You good with that?

Chris Fanning.

>> Yeah I echo all of this I think, you know last year was goblin mode I think was what.

>> We were.

>> The word of the year maybe.

and it's, it's got an element of nostalgia to it.

Right.

Like, you think of these words and you think of the year and how they were used and who was using it.

And then you move forward and something else takes its place.

>> Then you're officially an old when you keep using it, and it's no longer in vogue.

>> An old I love that.

>> What.

>> We should do for next year is go back and we'll do a double quiz next year.

At the end of 2026, the panel's coming back.

We'll do we'll do the 2026 words, but then we're going to go back to whatever the first year we did this like ten years.

>> Ago easily.

>> And we're going to just rerack those exact words and phrases and see if anybody still knows or uses.

>> Oh, that's not fair.

There's so much younger than I.

>> Am.

>> But you're so cool.

>> You're so cool.

so cool.

>> Linda Sue is very, very cool.

okay, so let's go ahead here.

Can we can we get started with the quiz?

Can we jump to that?

>> Are there going to be sound effects?

>> I think so.

>> I oh there we go.

>> You know, I don't know if we're paying for the rights to this music, but please, nobody sue us.

here we go.

Let me take you back to December 1994, in Geneva, New York, 8-year-old Chris Fanning walks into his family's kitchen.

His parents, his brothers, his aunts, uncle and cousins are all there chowing down on pizza.

Chris scours every box, hoping to find a lovely cheese pizza just for him, but all he can find are the hated sausage, mushroom and pepperoni pizzas.

Chris thinks those are a gut pop.

Be C Blep d a false hit.

What do you think they are?

>> Chris I think blep.

>> C Blep.

Incidentally, as we continue, some of these words might have also blended over the last year because some of the dictionaries will add them.

And then their contemporary, their competitors will add them over time.

So these have to have been added by at least one major dictionary this year.

Chris says Blep Amanda.

>> Could you go through the choices again, please?

>> Gut pop, skip Blep and a false hit.

>> I'm gonna go with Skippity.

>> Okay.

>> Linda Sue.

>> I guess Blep it just it's Onomatopoetic.

>> Blep is a case of an animal with its tongue sticking partway.

>> Out.

>> Well, no, just a second.

That could be Chris.

>> To be fair.

that that might actually fit here.

>> Because Skippity, which is the correct answer, is a word that can.

have could have different meanings, such as cool or bad, or can be used with no real meaning as a joke.

That's from the Cambridge Dictionaries definition comes from the viral Skippity Toilet YouTube series, where a man singing head pops out of a toilet.

As you all know.

So.

Okay is that how you would use Skippity?

By the way, would you.

>> Use.

Would you use Skippity?

>> I am, I am not in the proper demographic for for using Skippity and I'm okay with that.

>> Linda Sue is skippity likely to be part of the title of your next book?

>> Oh well, it wasn't, but I'll think about it.

>> Okay.

Yeah.

>> I don't know.

I see that's one that I think is going away sometime soon too.

But I could be wrong here.

all right, second question.

Here we go.

Follow it home, play along with the quiz.

Chris learns that his brother Adolph is pizza in a rampage.

He pushes him.

The two scuffle causing food and drinks to spill everywhere, including on his family's plane tickets for their trip to Paris the next.

>> Morning.

>> Chris's mom, the lovely Karen Fanning, sends Chris to the attic, telling Chris that he is a loaded B going to air jail.

C well fired D cooked.

All right, Linda Sue, you don't get to cheat off Amanda this time.

>> Or Chris.

So you have to start.

>> I need them again.

>> goaded going to air jail.

Well, fired or cooked?

>> Going with air jail.

>> Air jail.

Okay.

>> Amanda Chestnut cooked.

>> Cooked.

Chris.

>> I'm going with cooked, but air jail is one of my favorite words of the year.

I will say.

>> All right, Cambridge Dictionary definition of air jail a noun.

The activity of lifting a pet animal, usually a dog, into the air and holding them there for a short time to stop or prevent bad behavior.

>> I would love to see your mother send you to.

>> Jail.

Once again.

That might have been the correct answer.

Linda Sue might be zero for two, but I think you can make a case for two for two.

the answer is cooked.

Two out of three guys.

There you go.

It's an adjective.

Merriam-Webster says it's having.

Well, hold on a second.

What does it mean?

Chris Fanning?

What do you think Merriam-Webster defines cooked as.

>> I to me, you know, you're cooked, you're done.

It's over.

You're you're in time-out.

You've maxed out your.

>> But that's old.

>> Everything old.

>> Is new.

Your goose is cooked.

Yeah.

You know.

>> Well I think the goose is cooked is a full phrase cooked on its own is what's probably used very often.

I hear that a lot, don't you?

>> I hear both cooked and fried.

And I think that both of these are.

I think that fried is probably longer fried.

>> I thought fried meant like exhausted.

>> Yeah.

>> That's how I would.

>> I didn't sleep last night.

I'm really fried.

>> Yeah, my brain is fried.

I've been working.

I've been staring at a screen too long cooked.

>> Merriam-Webster says having achieved a state of failure, being doomed.

So something that's cooked is.

Yeah, it's over.

It's got no chance.

It's done.

>> Thanks.

Marie Callender.

>> All right, here we go.

Question number three, Chris lies in bed wishing his family would disappear.

Never.

And when he wakes up the next morning, he realizes they have.

Everyone is gone.

At first, Chris thinks he's the Lulu, but he soon realizes it's true.

Chris runs around the house, jumps on beds while eating popcorn, takes a shower and applies some aftershave leading to a painful scream.

No problem.

He thinks it's just a Agflation be naked quitting.

See shadow ban D burnt toast theory Amanda Chestnut has to start with this one.

>> Oh thank.

>> God.

>> That was hard.

Give me, give him to me again.

This one's a hard one.

>> agflation.

Naked quitting shadow ban.

Burnt toast theory.

>> I have no idea on this one.

And that is rare.

I'm going with.

Naked quitting.

>> Okay, Chris Fanning.

>> I'm gonna go with burnt toast theory.

>> Okay.

Linda.

Sue.

>> Burnt toast.

I think I have some idea of the others, and I've never heard of that one.

>> Okay, naked quitting is not right.

Naked quitting is a noun.

Leaving a job without having another job to go to.

From Cambridge Dictionary.

Okay, burnt toast theory is correct.

>> Woohoo!

>> Now you.

You went straight to burnt toast theory.

But why?

What do you think burnt toast theory is?

>> I have no idea.

>> You were just guessing.

>> Yeah.

>> I knew what.

>> Naked quitting was so I could take that out.

>> But do you have a thought?

Linda Sue Park.

>> Well, burnt toast is not good, right?

It's cooked.

Very nice.

>> See, I would have thought it had something to do with having a stroke or something.

Yes, like brain failure.

>> burnt toast theory.

According to Cambridge, the idea that a minor inconvenience, like burning your toast in the morning might actually be preventing something worse happening later in the day.

>> Oh.

>> You're looking at this, Chris.

Like you've never heard of that.

>> I yeah, no.

>> No.

>> Never.

A whole life philosophy.

Never heard that.

>> No.

Amanda's usually the grounding rod that like, knows is at least aware of all of this.

>> No, that totally, totally off my register.

>> What is Agflation, by the way?

>> How the price of eggs.

>> Goes.

Significantly significant increase in the price of eggs, normally because of higher production costs or shortages and shadow ban I thought was on last year.

It might have been, but Merriam-Webster added shadow ban this year to cause a user or their content to be hidden from some or all other users on a platform, usually without the user's knowledge.

Okay, so Elon Musk is a big fan of shadow banning.

>> Correct?

>> Yeah.

okay.

Question number four.

I've already lost track of the score, but I think that I think that Linda Sue is losing.

One point for Linda Sue.

Two points for Amanda, two points for Chris.

Here we go.

Things are going pretty well for Chris.

And two until two burglars target his home.

But Chris sets a bunch of I was going to say booby traps, but the copy I have says booby traps.

I want.

>> To tell you.

>> It is booby traps.

That is not a slang word that was added to the dictionary.

That was a sleep deprived Megan Mack writing booby traps.

Unless anybody want to take us, I don't think booby traps.

>> No no no no no no no no.

>> Chris sets a bunch of booby traps, leading to a series of painful punishments for the bandits that take about 20 minutes of screen time.

Anyone watching might have a few of those booby traps on their a B for you.

Page.

See?

Bingo card D 41.

Back to Chris Fanning.

>> they might have them on their bingo card.

>> Might have them on the bingo card.

Do you get the reference by the way do you understand that we're referencing a movie with this story.

>> Oh yeah okay.

>> Yeah okay.

It's a It's a Wonderful Life.

>> I thought it was National Lampoon.

>> It might be Home.

>> Alone.

>> Linda Sue.

>> I need him again.

Sorry.

>> Okay.

anyone watching might have a few of those booby traps on there.

A bet b for you.

Page C, bingo card D 41.

>> Okay, I think bingo card makes sense, so I'll go with that.

>> All right, Amanda.

>> But I can see Chris who's gesturing otherwise.

>> I'm.

I'm guessing the bingo card, but I could I could make an argument for for you page.

>> For you page.

Yeah.

>> I could make an argument for for you page.

>> Interestingly enough, we would be willing to take two answers and that is for you page and bingo card.

So I think Amanda gets a bonus point for recognizing that it could have been either or.

>> There.

I was gonna say that.

>> You have.

>> A habit of saying that.

>> Linda Sue likes to wait for Amanda to weigh in, and it's like, whatever.

>> Amanda said.

>> Linda Sue's never copied off.

Chris.

I just.

>> Want you doing.

>> The.

>> Sign language for.

>> Chris was hinting.

Chris was hinting at it.

>> I thought it was for.

b b beer.

>> Beer.

>> I saw the four fingers and thought it was a for you page hand signal.

>> Oh my goodness.

>> Worked on multiple levels.

>> Okay.

All right.

So let's get Amanda who did not even had not even heard of the last one.

Amanda, what is a bingo card?

>> the bingo card.

Is this imaginary bingo card where you list random events that might happen over the course of a year, and then you're surprised when something even more random happens.

And that wasn't on your bingo card.

>> Well said.

OED says a set of possibilities governed by chance, especially in nationalist events, utterances, et cetera., regarded as being probable or expected in a given context or situation.

Also in negative constructions with reference to unexpected events.

Yeah, you really should work for these.

>> You should be.

>> Running these companies.

So because Chris wants to claim credit for the for you page as well, what's A for you page?

>> A for you page is on social media curated by your searches.

What you're looking at mostly you know it can be cars or celebrities or cartoons or anything.

>> Spotify year end list.

>> Okay, I would say Spotify is okay with this.

Although we recently learned from Jimmy Highsmith and Sarah Duvalier that we shouldn't be on Spotify.

But anyway, this whole other conversation but I am, to the extent that I'm ever on X anymore, which is almost never the for you is a hall of mirrors.

Terrible, I hate it, I hate whatever they've done with the for you stuff.

Just switch it over to whatever you're following.

I just find that awful.

>> I think of it.

Instagram main.

The main for you page.

>> Is it.

>> Okay for you?

Page is cats and Pedro Pascal.

>> Which is great.

>> I want that on my bingo card.

>> Well well.

>> Aligned with what I aligned.

Yeah, they know what you like.

There you go.

Okay, so.

>> Linda Sue, what does 41 mean?

That was one of the possible answers here.

What's 41?

>> Do you know?

>> No, I have no idea.

>> No idea.

>> Okay, Amanda, do you.

>> Know it's in the the toilet realm of of nonsense?

>> To me.

>> It looks like six m. Merriam-Webster says it's a nonsense expression used by teens.

So what's the difference between for.

Is it for 1 or 41?

I don't even know.

>> Okay.

Anyway.

>> I think somebody should know what the choices mean.

I think.

>> Teenagers love two numbers in a row.

>> I think next year we need to have a high school or college team.

>> Yeah.

>> We do have an empty.

>> Chair here.

>> That is actually a great idea.

>> I think that's the voice we're missing.

>> Yes.

Yeah.

>> Missing from the table.

>> More and more as we get older.

okay.

Amanda, what is bet mean?

>> Bet.

>> Bet is bet is like.

>> Black entertainment television.

>> Isn't it?

Bet.

No.

>> This.

>> Is the lowercase bet.

The word is bet.

Do you not know how.

bad is used here?

>> If you were to say, come on, you're not going to host Connections every day of the next month.

And I'd say, bet.

Am I doing that right?

Yes.

Okay.

Yes.

Which would mean like, dare me?

Like, I bet I will.

>> Bet is.

Yeah.

>> Wanna bet?

>> Wanna bet?

Yes, but bet it said as like a. You wanna bet?

It is a go ahead bet on this.

But I'm.

I'm accurate.

>> I'm gonna, I'm gonna take the.

I'm going to take the bet I'm in like, this is happening.

Okay.

All right.

Is this the last question?

Final question of the quiz number five coming up here.

Amanda has taken a one point lead over Chris.

And Linda is playing two.

here we go.

After a neighbor helps Chris serve the bandits.

The wet bandits.

They're just desserts.

Chris returns to his quiet, empty house.

He soon realizes that he misses his family, especially his mom, the lovely Karen Fanning.

And in a true Christmas miracle, when he wakes up the next morning, the lovely Karen Fanning is home.

She hugs him and she says.

>>, Merry Christmas.

Chris.

>> Wow, wow.

>> He hugs her back and replies.

>> Merry Christmas mom.

>> Yeah, did you not know your mother?

Hello the lovely Karen Fanning.

Did we get you?

You got, we got you.

>> For the first time ever, we get to hear the lovely Karen Fanning.

How are you?

Lovely Karen Fanning.

>> Oh, I'm fine, I'm great.

This is a great show, Chris.

>> Anything you want to say to your mom?

>> See you tonight.

>> Karen, what is it like being the star of every annual word show?

I mean, it's got to be just delightful for you.

>> It is delightful.

It's.

Yeah, my one time of of fame.

>> Yeah.

It's when you get main character energy.

I don't actually know if I even did that.

Right.

>> I think that's right.

>> That one's a little closer.

Yeah.

Okay.

Do you know any of these phrases or expressions, Karen.

>> I could not I'd be zero.

I'd have zero.

Now, even minus.

>> I.

>> I am going to say this to Karen before we let Karen go here.

Karen is the least Karen of a Karen I've ever met.

And that's a word that sometimes would probably be considered here.

Karen, what has it been like for you with the name Karen and seeing the zeitgeist pick up your name as a word?

>> I, I just don't even, you know, consider it.

I just ignore it.

It's not.

It's nothing to me.

>> That's exactly right.

>> It is nothing burger.

>> It's a nothing burger.

>> It's a nothing burger.

>> There we go.

That's a little throwback.

okay.

So Karen, thank you.

By the way, I think we can let Karen go.

That was a really nice surprise for Chris.

We really got you, didn't he?

>> That was very nice.

Yes, yes.

Thank you.

>> We got her.

>> Thank you.

And Merry Christmas to all.

>> Merry Christmas to you, Karen Fanning, the lovely Karen Fanning.

She's the best.

Okay, here we go.

Here.

I'm going to read the question again this time, though, because you've probably all forgotten.

So after a neighbor helps Chris serve the wet Bandits, their just deserts, Chris returns to his quiet, empty house.

He soon realizes that he misses his family, especially his mom, the lovely Karen Fanning, who we just heard and in a true Christmas miracle, when he wakes up the next morning, the lovely Karen Fanning is home.

She hugs him and says, Merry Christmas, Chris!

And he hugs her back and he replies, Merry Christmas blank.

Now we're not going to use mom here.

We're going to use either a baddie B baby girl.

Amanda's dying over there.

See Bruce and and D Sigma.

>> So none of those are things you should ever call your mother.

I agree with that here.

Linda Sue Park.

Betty, baby girl, Bruce.

or Sigma?

>> Oh my God.

Sigma.

Because I don't know what it means.

>> Okay.

All right.

>> I'm going with Betty because it's the least awkward.

>> Out of all.

Oh, no.

>> Sigma is terrible.

>> What do you got?

>> I'm going with baddie.

>> With baddie.

All right, so let's eliminate a few here.

I'm glad that nobody went with Bruce.

Which Merriam-Webster says means bros or brothers.

How do you spell.

>> Bros?

>> It sounds like Bruce.

>> Bruise is how Merriam-Webster.

I've never seen it like that.

But then again, I'm 46. so it's not bruise.

And let's see if anybody can.

This one surprised me a little bit.

The definition, according to Dictionary.com of baby girl.

All one word.

What?

All one word.

What's baby girl?

>> Baby girl?

It's a cute boy, you know, they're doing something cute.

They're doing something lovely.

And you say, hey, baby.

>> Girl, baby girl.

>> Baby girl.

>> But it's directed.

>> At typically for men.

For men.

Unless it's someone who is an intimate.

>> Partner in The Last of Us.

>> Goes by baby girl.

>> Yeah, her, his daughter and then the.

>> Okay, so baby girl Dictionary.com says an attractive male, often a celebrity who is admired for being cute, sensitive, vulnerable or stylish.

>> Wow.

>> Baby girl.

Okay, so not to so no to baby girl.

We would have accepted Batty or Sigma.

>> So let's start with Sigma.

>> I get extra for being the only one.

>> Linda Sue Park.

>> Sigma means what?

What is Sigma?

>> It's the letter of the Greek.

>> Alphabet.

>> Now, this is interesting because I do.

I coach enough kids who use this term that I hear it.

And I could tell you how I think they use it.

And then I would tell you how Merriam-Webster defines it.

But I think Sigma, to me sounds like a new version of just an alpha.

Someone who's an alpha.

Is that what do you think?

Amanda Chestnut?

>> I feel like it might be some kind of social ranking in in that alphabet category, but not exactly sure what other than I think I've heard it as a pejorative.

I am not sure.

>> Okay.

You don't know Chris Fanning.

>> Not in my vernacular.

>> Merriam-Webster says Sigma is a person who is coolly self-assured, independent and driven.

>> Oh, interesting.

>> It's a sigma.

>> So an alpha would be more aggressive.

>> Yeah.

>> I guess is more.

>> It's better to be sigma than Alpha.

>> Sigma is kind of cool, confident.

>> Okay.

>> Okay.

>> Interesting.

>> You're right though.

We need this.

This fourth seat.

>> Filled.

>> And a baddie.

So Amanda went with baddie.

Chris went with baddie.

what's the definition, Chris of a baddie?

>> You're probably like Sigma.

You're cool.

You're you're in.

You're you're where it's at.

>> From bad.

Yeah.

Right.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Which is really.

>> From bad.

Bad as good.

>> Bad as good.

Which must be 20 years old.

>> oh.

At least.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

>> Yeah.

Bad as good.

Michael Jackson's bad was 1989 or 88.

So we're going back more than, like, four decades.

But how would you define baddie?

>> baddie?

Is yeah, I typically used for the feminine and it is a level of coolness, but also, I think implies a little bit of either aloofness or, or kind of social ranking that is, that is a bit above and beyond.

Peers and peers and equals.

>> Again, why this is your calling.

Amanda Chestnut.

a confident, stylish and attractive kind of a high society woman.

>> Baddie.

>> Feminine.

>> So yeah, I think Taylor Swift, I think Beyonce, I think, yeah.

>> Okay, so is Karen Fanning a baddie?

She's lovely.

>> She's lovely.

>> She's the family baddie.

>> She is the family baddie.

Yes.

>> Yeah.

Also, apparently a Sigma.

>> According to.

>> According to the judges.

Now, now that we've gone through the five question quiz listeners, how did you do?

Megan Mack.

Producer has the rankings.

What have we got?

Megan Mack.

>> Wait, wait, I have a caveat.

I want it on record that I said to everyone off air before we came on that I was going to do terribly this year because I have been off social media, which is where I usually learn the phrases that we go over here.

So.

>> But, but how is your mental health being off social media?

>> Way better.

Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>>, yeah.

>> So you may not.

>> Know I'm not completely, but I am off way off from what I used to do.

>> It's it's a little freeing, isn't it?

It's like for a long time you convinced yourself, like.

Well, either I have to respond to someone who's wrong on the internet or someone tagged me in something, and I've got to read and respond to this, or I'm.

Now I've got to be upset that people are saying these ridiculous things, and then you realize you actually don't have to do any of those things.

>> It's just this huge mass of brain cells that is no longer occupied by by those sorts of.

>> Things.

>> Not only that occupied with better things for you.

>> I would hope.

>> I would assume.

>> I would assume, all right.

The scoreboard Megan Mack.

>> Well, I have good news for you, Linda Sue, because if we give you the point you awarded yourself.

You're tied with Chris at four.

>> Let's get let's get it.

Let's give it.

>> And Amanda has five.

Amanda has five with her.

Bonus point.

>> There it is.

All right.

>> Amanda Chestnut is the winner at five points out.

>> Of five.

But really, it would have been six.

>> Out of five if you didn't miss one.

But that is very well done.

And it's about time that they won one of these things, because I don't think you won last year.

I think maybe you did because Chris has never won.

>> Have you ever won?

>> I feel like I've won.

>> I feel like, did you win last year?

>> I think I.

>> Feel like I didn't win last year.

>> Is there?

No.

>> We need to check the records.

>> On this.

>> Yeah.

>> I think every.

>> Year I say.

>> This.

Write this down.

>> I don't think there's like a Reddit thread.

>> That's keeping this going here.

no, Chris, I think I'd remember if you've ever won and I don't think you ever.

>> Have.

>> I don't think you have.

You know who would know?

>> All of Chris's wins have now been expunged.

>> Karen would.

>> Know my mother.

Karen probably would know.

>> Actually.

She would just say, you're always a winner, honey.

>> Yeah, because she loves you so much.

>> Patty.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> All right, let's let's take our only break.

We're going to come back.

There were a few definitions in terms that we did not get to, and we're going to continue to to to unofficially quiz our contestants.

Quiz the audience.

We're talking about new words and phrases in the dictionary.

If your head is spinning, so is mine.

But we're having a lot of fun with Chris Fanning, Linda Sue Park and the champion Amanda Chestnut.

We'll come right back.

I'm Evan Dawson Thursday on the next Connections, a local woman and her family have made national news this year.

Stephanie Woodward is a disability rights activist who has been featured in people magazine for how she and her husband have grown their family for how they travel using wheelchairs and more.

We're going to talk with Woodward about all this attention.

Then in our second hour, the One Take documentary series is back at the Little Theater.

This week, we'll talk with local filmmakers.

>> Support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Mary Cariola center, proud supporter of Connections with Evan Dawson.

Believing an informed and engaged community is a connected one.

Mary Cariola and Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, working with members to find health coverage for every stage of life, helping to make care and coverage more accessible in more ways for more people across the Rochester community.

Details online at.

Zealous Ebsco.com.

>> Oh, we unofficially continue the game.

The game is always fun because it's it's fun for us to see how out of touch we are with the new words and phrases, but some of what I'm going to read in this extended list that is in, either Cambridge, Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com some of these I think are going to be around for a long time as tech changes and norms change.

So we're going to go down the list here, and I'm just going to go around the table again.

Listeners kind of play along.

See if you know what these mean.

Chris Fanning.

What does agentic mean?

>> I know I look this up to Agentic.

>> It's an adjective.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah.

What is it?

Reference.

Do you know?

>> No, I, I I'm not pulling it.

>> Lindstrom.

>> Agentic sounds like an a is Antigent is masculine gender a gender?

>> Oh, you're going straight to the roots.

No, this is A.I.

related.

>> Oh.

>> A.I.

related.

So you're.

If you hear about something being agentic, what it means is an A.I.

agent.

Oh, my personal preference for society is that we don't start to anthropomorphize A.I., and we don't use hims and hers for it.

Even when these chatbots are telling you their name and their identity.

You see A.I.

actors, you see all this stuff.

I'm.

I think we should not anthropomorphize.

I don't think that's a healthy trend.

Although I'm going to lose probably that battle.

However, Agentic refers to an A.I.

agent, and an agent is able to accomplish results with autonomy used especially in reference to A.I.

That's from Merriam-Webster, and it is.

so if you are working on a flight cancellation and you're typing to quote, unquote somebody and you go, wait a second, are you a human being?

And they.

>> Say.

>> No, but I'm here to help you.

You're talking to Agentic A.I.

and Agentic is designed to accomplish tasks, and you're going to encounter it in a lot of different ways.

That's out there.

So.

>> Okay.

>> I feel like there's a better word.

>> Yeah.

that's that's too far off the mark for me.

>> I'm with you there.

I'm not a big fan of that.

but that's that's becoming much more common.

okay, here's a phrase.

Linda Sue eight and left.

No crumbs.

>> Yes.

>> Well, it's not what it sounds like.

>> It refers to the act of eating food and not leaving any crumbs.

No, it does.

>> Not.

>> no.

>> Nothing there.

No.

Amanda Chestnut ate and left no crumbs.

>> To eat and leave no crumbs is to do something of significance.

typically in conversation, but also could be some kind of performative thing, like wearing an outfit to eat and leave no crumbs is to not only do that thing so well, but you have done it so well that there is none left behind for somebody else to do after you.

>> Oh, so.

>> It's like chef's kiss.

Yep.

>> The the best.

>> To eat and leave.

No crumbs.

Is that a phrase that you hear with some frequency?

>> No.

It's what you just did.

>> She.

Yes.

>> So Amanda nails that.

So that was eating and leaving no crumbs.

But is this something that you do?

And is that a phrase?

Does Linda Sue, you've not encountered that phrase, have you?

>> I have not heard it, but I read it.

>> Okay.

>> So so you've seen it.

Okay.

And you were right away.

>> You were.

Oh, yeah.

>> Okay.

That's not.

>> What she ate.

She ate it.

Okay.

>> You don't say the crumbs part though.

>> No.

>> Okay.

>> Out loud I would say you.

>> Read more.

>> Out loud.

Yes.

To say that someone ate.

Yeah.

Oh they ate.

Yeah.

They killed it.

They nailed it.

They.

Yeah.

But to also leave no crumbs.

That's an online statement.

>> Yeah.

>> Okay.

we got blep.

That's funny.

That is really funny.

and I'm just trying to kind of go through it because I've got the whole new dictionary here.

yeah.

Burnt toast theory.

Where is anybody saying that?

How did that get in?

>> Maybe I like it.

Yeah, yeah.

>> it's better than eating the frog.

>> Oh, I love eat the frog.

>> See, it's.

Frogs are so gross.

>> Or eat the toad.

>> Can I please eat something slightly less unpleasant than a frog?

>> Do you know this, Linda?

>> No.

>> So it's like doing the thing that you're least looking forward to.

Just getting it out of the way first thing in the morning.

That one work task, that email you have to send, that phone call you have to make.

>> And what's the eat, eat.

the toad.

>> Eat the frog.

>> Eat the toad.

Yeah.

>> Get it done.

>> This is a great expression.

>> I love it.

>> Bite the bullet.

>> Yeah.

Same, although that's a little less violent.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Well, preferred.

Preferred.

Okay.

>> Eat the frog feels more like an action to me.

Whereas Bite the bullet feels like a state of mind.

But never mind.

>> Okay.

No, no.

>> That's interesting.

>> okay.

I'm interested that I'm kind of dismayed that Merriam-Webster is now putting the word butthurt in the dictionary.

>> I so.

>> I anybody I think.

>> That this is important because what it means versus how it is used.

>> Oh, interesting.

>> Actually there are two like parallel definitions, but they're not quite the same.

And I think that people often are off the mark on the interpretation.

>> Okay.

Can you elaborate?

>> No, because I know this one.

I know I'm gonna screw up the actual somebody else is gonna have to give the actual definition.

>> Of this one.

>> Let me read.

>> Let me read what Merriam-Webster has for butthurt, which can be an adjective or noun, upset or offended in a way that seems over the top or silly.

>> So that is how it is most often used.

But the actual, you know, the actual definition.

An butthurt.

>> I mean, I can guess I don't love it.

I don't love it as a phrase in general.

>> I think.

>> That's why I'm like, amazed that this is getting in Merriam-Webster's dictionary.

I'm not a fan here., okay.

Anything.

Anything you want to add there on that one?

Amanda?

>> Let's come back to it, because I'm going to do a little bit of looking because I feel like there's missing information on this one.

>> Okay.

Merriam-Webster also puts clout in there, although we know what clout is, but clout with a slang sense.

So what's the slang sense of clout.

So it's a new definition for clout.

>> It's not to have clout.

>> what they have is the slang.

Sense of clout refers to attention, fame, popularity, and sometimes notoriety, especially the kind 1st May achieve on social media, whether by posting a controversial hot take or performing a stunt on video in the hope that it goes viral.

So looking for clout, clout seeking is what.

>> I hear.

Okay.

>> So I don't hear clout in that way.

What I hear is clout chasers or clout seeking.

>> Yes.

>> That that is new to me.

>> Usually the people who are doing what's that?

What's the activity where you try to jump off a building and you usually get hurt?

>> Parkour.

>> Parkour.

>> Parkour.

Isn't that what parkour is?

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> It's like you're jumping on weird stuff.

>> You're jumping off things.

It's famous from The Office.

You know, Michael Scott did it in one of the.

I didn't know that.

>> Yeah.

All right, so that's like cloud chasing is just trying to go viral for the sake of going viral.

>> Yes.

>> Okay.

There you go.

yeah, we referenced this earlier.

Megan Mack put Lulu in one of the diouloulou is what?

Chris Fanning.

>> You're delusional.

You're out of your mind.

>> Yeah.

Believing things that are not real.

Believing things that are not real or true.

>> Why didn't you ask me?

I knew that.

>> One.

>> It's just a fun way to say, like, deluded.

>> Yes, exactly.

Yeah.

>> because I like to give you the hard.

>> Ones.

>> Not the not the obvious ones here.

anything to add there on the previous there.

Amanda Chestnut.

>> So the.

I'm very grateful to Merriam-Webster for giving me the words to articulate this, because I was thinking this, but I wasn't really sure how to say it out loud.

The way you see butthurt often used is a not just a pejorative.

Calling somebody whiny, but it is frequently also used.

homophobic.

>> Yes.

>> it did not originate in reference to any sexual act.

It originated in the 90s as a result of spanking children.

So this is also not necessarily a word that we're going to be used.

We don't like to talk about beating.

>> Children love.

>> It as much as we don't like to tease people about their bottoms.

in however they choose to use them.

But I yeah, I wanted to make sure that I was actually that that is that.

Yes, that is what I thought.

But I.

>> But to me like to me like there's.

>> No good justification for it.

I just don't.

>> Like it.

Okay.

>> And evolutionarily, when I was little, which is a long before most of you were little, but was a bad word, you couldn't say, but you know, your mom would, would be like, that's you don't say, but.

And now it's nothing.

>> Yeah.

>> all right.

I'm going to give you one that I think.

>> You can.

Are you ready?

>> Merriam-Webster also added goaded G.o.a.t.

>> Goated from greatest of all time.

>> Yeah.

Considered considered so someone who's goaded is considered to be the greatest of all time.

Okay.

>> Thank you.

I didn't know that.

>> One that wasn't even on there.

I just made that up.

No.

>> Actually that is, that is.

>> That's on there.

That's on there on your quiz.

You know, it's also in Merriam-Webster, the acronym Idgaf.

Like, why do we need that.

>> Oh yeah.

>> Well we.

>> Use it, we use.

>> It, I use.

>> That one.

But we don't like say it as a word.

Do we.

Like we don't say like Idgaf.

>> I don't say it as a word, but I will absolutely text.

Yes.

>> But does that need to be acronyms?

Don't need to be in the dictionary do they?

>> I think so.

>> They're being used if they're in the.

>> Yeah it's it's a, it's a, it's a language tool worth defining especially because acronyms are often linguistically used in business.

>> And some of them become words.

And of course, I can't think of any right now, but.

>> Ngl.

>> Yeah.

>> Not gonna lie.

>> Yeah, okay.

>> there's there is one for gut pop that is on the list here.

So anybody know what gut pop, how it's defined.

This is from Cambridge Dictionary.

Gut pop.

>> Are we talking about pop as in soda or pop as in explode?

>> Well, you tell me.

>> I'm guessing it's explode.

Something that doesn't agree with you.

>> Maybe Cambridge.

In England, they don't say pop for soda.

>> Oh, see, we need this.

We need this information.

>> That actually didn't help.

It is based on about a fizzy drink.

So.

>> Everybody out.

Yeah.

>> So Cambridge.

Just me.

>> Cambridge defines gut pop as a fizzy drink that helps good bacteria grow in your body and may.

>> You healthy.

Oh, it's like a probiotic soda.

>> A.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> Oh, yeah.

We like those.

>> Gut gut pop.

>> I instantly went to a negative.

But yeah, okay.

>> then there's stuff down here that I really thought is outdated.

Like it's getting in now.

I'm surprised.

Like, Dictionary.com has got Nepo baby in there this year.

>> Okay.

>> I think we all know what a nepo baby is, right?

Okay.

>> At least a couple years old.

>> Yeah, to me, I thought that was obvious.

Merriam-Webster's got Riz in there this year.

>> Oh, his was last year.

>> Was last year or the.

year before?

Yeah.

>> I'm sure I think you were using it a lot in the episode, and we had some good laughs.

>> Yeah, yeah.

I. Merriam-Webster has simp this year.

I don't know about.

>> Simp is old.

>> That's what I thought.

so what is simp Amanda.

>> Simp short for simpering.

is a often used as a pejorative towards a masculine person, although it can be used towards feminine as well.

to be a simp is to be someone who is has their life generally impaired by their need to give affection towards another person?

>> pretty much.

Perfect.

That's outstanding.

so why in the world C is in there in Cambridge this year?

I think we did Skippity last year.

which means what?

>> I don't think so.

>> Maybe we didn't.

Okay, so skip.

this year.

All right.

What is.

Well, what's skippity Linda Sue Park.

>> I don't know.

Okay.

Chris Fanning got to do with that toilet thing.

>> Yeah, it's a it's a nonsense.

Yeah, yeah.

>> But a.

>> Nonsense, all encompassing.

>> skippity.

I guess it can.

>> Can be used all encompassing, but it is also often used as a dismissive pejorative.

>> Yes.

So it's either that and it's often that, but apparently Cambridge says it can also have different meanings, such as cool or bad.

So you're right.

It's got it's got this wide range.

But when you hear somebody talks about like, oh, I can't believe I have the same lunch every day.

>> Yes.

>> Okay.

>> And I think of Skippity doo dah.

>> Yeah.

Okay.

Does anybody know what Skip lagging is?

Skip lagging.

>> Is.

Are you are you lacking enthusiasm.

>> Lagging or lacking.

>> Lag.

>> Oh skips lagging.

Television lags.

And it makes you skip part of the program.

>> Yeah.

But people don't watch television.

>> Anymore.

>> So see I thought it was a streaming.

>> Word streaming thing.

>> It's not.

This is according to Dictionary.com the practice of purchasing an air ticket for a flight with a layover at one's true destination.

>> Getting off.

>> At the layover point and skipping the last leg of the flight.

A workaround to avoid paying a higher fare for a direct flight to one's destination.

>> Yeah.

>> Skip.

>> I've heard of that practice I had not heard.

I didn't know it had a name.

>> No.

>> The term.

So instead of jet lag, it's skip.

>> Lag.

>> So I feel like layover.

If layover was in there somehow that would that would make.

>> Yeah.

Yeah I that's a to me that's a strange way of describing what the practice is.

I'm also amazed that the Oxford English Dictionary in the year 2025 is putting in pmsing.

>> What?

>> Oh, so here is another, there is an acronym that we use as a whole word in our everyday.

>> Major points.

>> I never say I am premenstrual syndrome.

I will say I am pmsing.

So there is okay.

There is that that that is a use of an everyday acronym that we say out loud, instead of saying the whole word out loud, and they're just putting the acronym in.

>> But in 2025, we're putting that in there like.

>> It is Women's health.

>> No.

>> I thought I thought.

>> That.

>> Was in there decades ago.

>> Of course it wow.

>> Of course we're acknowledging women's health belatedly.

>> I think.

Yeah.

>> But I think it would have been Amanda.

It would have been in there as a noun, you know, but not the way people are using it now, which is like, as a verb.

>> Yeah, I hear I hear that Amanda's got me dead to rights.

and I'm pretty sure we had no cap last year, didn't we, guys?

>> Yes.

>> No, cap.

>> I feel like.

>> Cap was last.

>> Cap was.

>> Last year.

No.

Cap is a slang meaning genuinely, truthfully.

Like like.

No.

No doubt, no cap.

Okay.

No filter.

what is Linda Sue Park?

What is a tradwife?

>> A tradwife tradie?

>> Yep, a tradwife Cambridge put Tradwife in there this year.

>> It's just a normal wife.

A traditional wife.

>> That is.

That is the essentially.

I mean, that's that's it.

What is it what connotation does that give Amanda a tradwife.

>> Oh, so it so if we're talking about there's a lot there's a lot embedded in Tradwife culture.

And so it depends on on what perspective you're looking for.

If you're looking at tradwife culture from an academic perspective, it's really important to understand how Mormonism functions.

and how in Mormon households, women are not.

It is not desirable for women to have income outside of the house.

So a lot of tradwife content is generated by women who are unable to work outside of the house and instead are generating content for the purpose of working inside of the house, which winds up framing a non work role.

a lifestyle as as it frames this, this lifestyle as as something that's achievable and attainable, when in actuality it's not a lifestyle.

It's a job for many of these people.

So there is looking at Tradwife culture, there is a lot of people around generally who behave in and engage in tradwife behavior.

I make loaves of bread.

I tried to make jelly.

It didn't go well.

but I know how to sew.

I can cook and clean and I would not receive a tradwife label because let's put an asterisk on this.

A lot of the tradwife movement, because it has become so closely linked to cultural conservatism.

Conservativism has also generated a huge undertone of racial bias.

as well, in Tradwife tradwife quote, unquote culture which has all very little to do with actually, traditionally being a housewife.

>> Which is why this whole thing could be its own other show on its own.

But I, I think Cambridges definition is a little too narrow.

It just says a married woman, especially one who posts on social media, who stays at home doing cooking, cleaning, et cetera.

and has children that she takes care of.

Tradwife is short for traditional wife.

I think it just doesn't do justice to the complexity of what we're talking about.

>> That is a great surface level definition, but for as a contemporary definition of how the word is actually being used, I think it misses the mark.

>> Chris Fanning what is unk?

Merriam Webster as unk.

Unk.

>> It's your uncle.

Unk.

>> How's it used?

>> Well, I say like, hey, unk, I.

>> Think I think it's what you say.

It's not an actual uncle, but it's that honorific.

>> Oh.

>> Unk.

Unk is the honorific.

Yes, but.

>> But it's not honorable.

>> It's it it.

>> You're old.

You're old.

Okay.

>> It's a way.

It depends on who's using it.

>> Feeling unk.

Right now.

>> In in.

>> The black community to refer to somebody as unk as your uncle would be a sign of respect, deference, and respect.

Respect?

Yes.

>> And generally speaking, you.

What Miriam is saying is you can use unk to kind of wink at somebody for being older than you.

Like, sorry I didn't catch your reference there, unk.

You know, like.

>> I it's short of calling someone a boomer, but it is, it is it it is a honorific reserved for people who are older.

Is it?

It's hard to lung land, uncle as an honorific if you're young.

>> Oh, my gosh.

>> It is very rare.

>> It's closing time.

Wow, what an hour we've had.

Amanda Chestnut Chris Fanning Linda Sue Park.

Thank you very much, everyone.

That was a lot of fun.

>> As always.

>> Yes.

>> Special thanks to the lovely Karen Fanning.

for popping in here as well.

The star of the show.

really, really great.

>> And the lovely Megan Mack.

>> Yes, yes.

Great to see you.

>> And the champion, Amanda.

Thank you very much.

>> Thank you so much.

>> I appreciate that from all of us at Connections.

Thanks for playing along.

Thanks for watching.

Thanks for listening.

We're back with you tomorrow on member supported public media.

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