Words and Phrases We Lost in 2023

Let’s take a moment to mourn some popular words and phrases we lost in 2023. Like those year-end lists of celebrities who made their exits, I’ll stick with some of the more familiar performers. Unlike those lists, the candidates need not be dead, merely damaged.

When I say, “words and phrases we lost,” I mean those no longer available for routine use without considering the risk of sending an unintended message. Their meanings or connotations have been neutered, altered or even turned upside down through repetition or misuse.

Of course, words have been molting their meanings since hairier humans first invented them. But instant communications and incessant hyperbole now accelerate the process. Words can be born, evolve and fade in no time. Words almost never truly die, so we just call them archaic. I have a book, The Endangered English Dictionary, filled with old words on their way out. Most are unrecognizable, but some, like tapster, another word for bartender, seem serviceable today. Why aren’t we still using them?

I can’t answer that. But I will submit that the following words and phrases have now been lost to casual, unexamined discourse. From now on, use these more carefully:

Authentic

Yes, I know this is Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year for 2023. The reason they cite for…