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The Word of the Year Isn't Even a Word? · I Hate Talking

• 0:29
  I Hate Talking: Welcome to episode 84 of I Hate Talking.
• 0:32
  I Hate Talking: -- Hi -- everyone.
• 0:33
  I Hate Talking: So we'll jump right into our word or phrase of the episode, which contains neither letters nor a word, in my opinion.
• 0:44
  I Hate Talking: It's just numbers and a hyphen.
• 0:47
  I Hate Talking: Right, but it is a big part of our lives with the junior high and elementary school boys.
• 0:53
  I Hate Talking: And this is one of the very reasons that we do not use the dictionary, as in dictionary.com for our real words or phrases and instead rely on our favorite Oxford language dictionary and occasionally supplement that with Merriam-Webster's various dictionaries, especially the 1828 version.
• 1:16
  I Hate Talking: So, this is dictionary.com's 2025 word of the year.
• 1:22
  I Hate Talking: Right, yeah, I mean, I understand you don't like the dictionary.com, but I feel like we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about it.
• 1:32
  I Hate Talking: They just announced their 2025 word of the year, which is 67.
• 1:37
  I Hate Talking: Precisely.
• 1:38
  I Hate Talking: So it is that can say it 67.
• 1:42
  I Hate Talking: So, I agree, it is something in the meme culture, I suppose, but Still not a word.
• 1:53
  I Hate Talking: Right, I agree, it's not a word, so it is surprising that they have it.
• 1:58
  I Hate Talking: And it's surprising that it's on this podcast, but I think we can slide it into the phrase category.
• 2:03
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 2:04
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, I think we need to talk about it first.
• 2:06
  I Hate Talking: Is it a word or how can dictionary.com Use it as a word.
• 2:12
  I Hate Talking: And second, I guess we need to define what is 67.
• 2:16
  I Hate Talking: So, dictionary.com, from what I read about it is, it has the numeral 6.
• 2:25
  I Hate Talking: A hyphen and then the numeral 7.
• 2:29
  I Hate Talking: So, that is how I guess they get around having that as a quote unquote word, it's all one string of characters, 67.
• 2:40
  I Hate Talking: So, Oxford Language Dictionary does not make any mention of this, so congrats to you, Oxford Language Dictionary, -- at -- least yet.
• 2:48
  I Hate Talking: That's true, not yet.
• 2:51
  I Hate Talking: We have hope though that you will not succumb to the meme culture.
• 2:55
  I Hate Talking: While we're looking this up.
• 2:57
  I Hate Talking: Tonight at Scouts, Adam was talking to the group, and he was like, I'm waiting for 6 or 7 of you left, and all the kids thought that was the funnest thing.
• 3:10
  I Hate Talking: They were all into that.
• 3:12
  I Hate Talking: Well, you didn't even give the context, so I'm trying to give some instructions about the construction project that we're about to do, and they are being normal boisterous kids, probably a little bit.
• 3:25
  I Hate Talking: Still amped up on the Halloween candy, probably still affected by the thing that we know as daylight savings time.
• 3:32
  I Hate Talking: And so on and so forth.
• 3:34
  I Hate Talking: So, we were doing the scout sign so that they would quiet down and as is per my usual routine, I'll say how many we're waiting on to quiet down so that we can proceed with said instructions, and I said, we're waiting on about 6 or 7, and that did not help because then they all went crazy again.
• 3:56
  I Hate Talking: They loved it so much, I thought you were so cool though.
• 3:59
  I Hate Talking: Well, I did not do it on purpose.
• 4:01
  I Hate Talking: So yeah, I thought you did at first until I looked at your face and realized, oh, -- he did not mean -- to do that.
• 4:07
  I Hate Talking: I did not mean to do that.
• 4:08
  I Hate Talking: No, I did not.
• 4:09
  I Hate Talking: I was actually trying to get them to be quiet.
• 4:10
  I Hate Talking: You were such a cool cup master to all these elementary school kids.
• 4:15
  I Hate Talking: You find it?
• 4:17
  I Hate Talking: See, it's not even a word, -- you can't even find -- it in their dictionary yet.
• 4:21
  I Hate Talking: I think I took a screenshot of it.
• 4:23
  I Hate Talking: I did find why they chose 67 as the word of the year.
• 4:28
  I Hate Talking: So I guess the reason, according to dictionary.com, that they chose it is because of its popularity and how quickly it rose.
• 4:39
  I Hate Talking: And meaning from June till now, it's risen sixfold.
• 4:45
  I Hate Talking: It has no signs of stopping, according to them.
• 4:49
  I Hate Talking: It originated from the song.
• 4:53
  I Hate Talking: 67 And the phrase in it, and I want to talk more about this phrase because I actually really like it.
• 5:02
  I Hate Talking: Obviously with TikTok and all that, it kind of went viral, and now it's what every elementary kid, essentially, or junior high kid is saying.
• 5:13
  I Hate Talking: A day does not go on in my homeschooling, that the kids find a 6 and a 7 on their math page or something like that.
• 5:22
  I Hate Talking: And get the instant 67.
• 5:26
  I Hate Talking: See, and they're in some way supporting this nonsensical term by even having it as a term at all.
• 5:35
  I Hate Talking: Well, to that point, again, with our elementary school kids, our 4th graders every year, they read a book called Findle.
• 5:44
  I Hate Talking: It's in our curriculum, and the concept, if you haven't read the book Findle, it's about a boy, and he learns that words are created because someone says that.
• 5:57
  I Hate Talking: And then everyone agrees, that's the word.
• 6:00
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 6:01
  I Hate Talking: So then he decides to start changing the words for things.
• 6:04
  I Hate Talking: And gets the whole school on board changing words like a pen.
• 6:08
  I Hate Talking: You don't call it a pen, PN, you call it a findle now.
• 6:12
  I Hate Talking: The teacher, the principal, everyone gets mad about this, that he's changing the words, but he convinces them that as long as the masses agree, that's what we're calling this.
• 6:23
  I Hate Talking: Then that's the word.
• 6:25
  I Hate Talking: Every word is essentially made up, is his concept.
• 6:28
  I Hate Talking: And so we've been talking about that in school with 67, and everything else is just when you agree that this is as a collective, what it means, and that's what it means.
• 6:43
  I Hate Talking: And that's, I mean, essentially, right, the foundation of words.
• 6:46
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, I suppose so.
• 6:48
  I Hate Talking: I mean, the collective needs to agree and it still needs to have consistent meaning that can somewhat change over time with the variety of things that we even study in the etymology of various words that we look at on this podcast.
• 7:04
  I Hate Talking: But they had initially agreed that that's what that means, right?
• 7:08
  I Hate Talking: And then you just move on or you say this is that word, people say, OK, that's what that means.
• 7:15
  I Hate Talking: And then it can build as time goes on to mean other stuff or to elaborate other ways.
• 7:21
  I Hate Talking: Perhaps, I mean, that's how Merriam-Webster came about with his dictionaries is because people were using words in an inconsistent manner and it was leading to confusion.
• 7:31
  I Hate Talking: So he created the dictionary essentially and made sure that there was proper definition of all the words.
• 7:38
  I Hate Talking: Right.
• 7:39
  I Hate Talking: But he's saying like this is, but those words initially had to come from somewhere, right?
• 7:44
  I Hate Talking: They did, yes.
• 7:46
  I Hate Talking: So no matter what language you're speaking or whatnot, it always had an origin point.
• 7:51
  I Hate Talking: See, the dictionary.com even itself describes this particular term as quote unquote classic brain rot slang, end quote, and continues that quote, it's purposely nonsensical and all about being in on the absurdity, end quote.
• 8:11
  I Hate Talking: OK, isn't that crazy?
• 8:12
  I Hate Talking: I think that maybe in 20 years we'll look back.
• 8:14
  I Hate Talking: Like, oh yeah, brain rot, obviously, but that's such a new concept, a new phrase that it's interesting they're using it, but I think that it might not be a new thing in the future.
• 8:25
  I Hate Talking: Brain rot is a really good term to describe something.
• 8:29
  I Hate Talking: It's a good term for a bad thing, or, I mean, not even necessarily a bad thing, just something that isn't beneficial.
• 8:37
  I Hate Talking: I suppose so.
• 8:39
  I Hate Talking: I just find it humorous that dictionary.com is itself describing the term that they designated as word of the year as -- I can't -- even give it better, right?
• 8:51
  I Hate Talking: Can we, are you, do you wanna keep talking about this, or do you want to talk about Doctor Becky in this word?
• 8:55
  I Hate Talking: We'll get there.
• 8:57
  I Hate Talking: Apparently the CBC, which I guess is, what is the CBC, CBC News, CBC, is this, this must be.
• 9:08
  I Hate Talking: Canada, maybe Canada Broadcasting Channel, I don't know.
• 9:13
  I Hate Talking: I thought you're talking about like health.
• 9:16
  I Hate Talking: The CDC.
• 9:18
  I Hate Talking: That's what I thought at first.
• 9:19
  I Hate Talking: I see CBC CDC.
• 9:21
  I Hate Talking: This is, yes, it's gotta be something Canada cause it's, I'm on a Canadian website.
• 9:25
  I Hate Talking: So apparently they hate it.
• 9:27
  I Hate Talking: So, there, they shared a funny meme where they have a reaction video from the alphabet finding out that a number won the word of the year.
• 9:38
  I Hate Talking: Right.
• 9:39
  I Hate Talking: Now there were some other contenders that I thought were better.
• 9:44
  I Hate Talking: OK, what are the contenders?
• 9:45
  I Hate Talking: So I think they had 10 runners up and apparently these are in alphabetic order, not necessarily the order in which they lost to 67, but the first one is gen.
• 10:01
  I Hate Talking: So basically a term associated with AI describing technologies that can perform tasks autonomously and make independent decisions.
• 10:09
  I Hate Talking: So that basically comes from like agent and AI mashed up gentic are farming, social media and the kid on top of the racing boat that you've seen probably dancing.
• 10:24
  I Hate Talking: Nope.
• 10:25
  I Hate Talking: Well, I guess that was not as popular as 67, so I only got that one, right?
• 10:29
  I Hate Talking: Broligarchy, no, so like oligarchy but with bros, so it was typically used to describe relationships such as Elon Musk and President Trump, clanker.
• 10:43
  I Hate Talking: No.
• 10:43
  I Hate Talking: So that's an AI slash robot that is an imperfect robot.
• 10:50
  I Hate Talking: They are not performing at their peak, so they're a clanker.
• 10:55
  I Hate Talking: Here's another one that's not a word, dynamite emoji.
• 11:00
  I Hate Talking: The emoji.
• 11:02
  I Hate Talking: The emoji.
• 11:03
  I Hate Talking: So I'm glad that at least 67 beat an emoji because that would be even more ridiculous.
• 11:08
  I Hate Talking: Gen Z stare, that one I I'm not familiar with, but I guess that is referring to the perceived blank stare sometimes viewed across the younger generation.
• 11:18
  I Hate Talking: That experts say is because of how they have grown up in a digital world.
• 11:25
  I Hate Talking: OK, kiss cam.
• 11:26
  I Hate Talking: OK, I know that one.
• 11:28
  I Hate Talking: I know that phrase.
• 11:29
  I Hate Talking: That's a phrase that, yep.
• 11:31
  I Hate Talking: Over tourism.
• 11:33
  I Hate Talking: OK, I mean, I can imagine that.
• 11:36
  I Hate Talking: I don't feel like I hear that.
• 11:37
  I Hate Talking: Well, it's things that you specifically don't go to tourist traps because they're over touristed, right?
• 11:45
  I Hate Talking: OK, I'm making picture.
• 11:47
  I Hate Talking: I'm just saying I don't hear that word, but I see.
• 11:50
  I Hate Talking: I understand it, tariff.
• 11:51
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 11:52
  I Hate Talking: Do they only choose words they like search Facebook.
• 11:56
  I Hate Talking: And the words that pop up generated the most often.
• 12:00
  I Hate Talking: They're like that's the word.
• 12:01
  I Hate Talking: And the last one, tradwife, which we already covered that one.
• 12:05
  I Hate Talking: We beat them, beat them to that, I guess we did do tariffs.
• 12:09
  I Hate Talking: That's right, kiss cam.
• 12:10
  I Hate Talking: There you go.
• 12:11
  I Hate Talking: We're more cutting edge than dictionary.com, but I guess maybe they do just search the social media and see what words are in the modern lexicon for that particular year.
• 12:24
  I Hate Talking: And that is the word of the year.
• 12:26
  I Hate Talking: OK.
• 12:27
  I Hate Talking: I do have a hard time calling it a word of the year, cause I don't feel like it's a word.
• 12:33
  I Hate Talking: But I do think it is a cultural thing right now, that will die down, obviously.
• 12:40
  I Hate Talking: So, if you do not know, we kind of just jumped right in.
• 12:45
  I Hate Talking: Probably most people do know what it is, but if you don't, if you're like, I have no idea what people are talking about, or what it even means, it came from a song originally, and then a TikTok basketball player, right?
• 12:58
  I Hate Talking: Quote a day after some famous shot or something is how I understand it to be.
• 13:03
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, and apparently his height is 6'7, so I think he was either using that as sort of like an association or fans associated that to him because it was the same number and -- the height of this particular basketball -- player.
• 13:20
  I Hate Talking: He like does this thing with his hands, goes up and down, open-handed, palm up, up and down.
• 13:25
  I Hate Talking: So somehow this got viral.
• 13:29
  I Hate Talking: It supposedly, everyone seems to agree that it means nothing, even dictionary.com calls it nonsensical, right?
• 13:37
  I Hate Talking: Like, and the point is it means nothing.
• 13:42
  I Hate Talking: And that was one thing I looked up when my kids started doing it.
• 13:45
  I Hate Talking: I didn't want them doing something if it had bad origins or inappropriateness or offensiveness, but everyone seems to agree that it literally means nothing.
• 13:56
  I Hate Talking: But The thing that I think is cool about it, I do it with my kids a lot, and I don't mind them doing it, is because of the psychologist, Doctor Becky, she did a theme, I mean, I probably wouldn't mind in general, cause of my personality.
• 14:13
  I Hate Talking: But she convinced me that it's actually a good thing.
• 14:16
  I Hate Talking: Because she was saying that the point of 67 is that a point of belonging.
• 14:22
  I Hate Talking: Maybe these kids are in class together and someone says 67.
• 14:27
  I Hate Talking: And you, this other kid isn't part of that clique, isn't part of that friend group, but he can instantly say 67, and they all can start saying it together.
• 14:37
  I Hate Talking: And for a very brief moment in time, a period of time, They are connected.
• 14:44
  I Hate Talking: And he's in the group And she's saying it's a part of belonging.
• 14:51
  I Hate Talking: That anyone can call out and be part of something like an inside joke.
• 14:59
  I Hate Talking: And I think that there's something really beautiful about that, that no matter who you are, You are included in this, because I often have a hard time with inside jokes.
• 15:12
  I Hate Talking: I don't like them for the most part.
• 15:14
  I Hate Talking: Because I don't like excluding people.
• 15:17
  I Hate Talking: When I do a party, I invite everyone because I hate excluding, I hate being excluded, so I project that.
• 15:25
  I Hate Talking: And don't want to ever exclude anyone, so then I overinvite everyone.
• 15:29
  I Hate Talking: So I feel like it's the same kind of thing for this brief moment of time.
• 15:34
  I Hate Talking: No matter who you are, you can be part of the in crowd, you can be part of this clique or friend group.
• 15:43
  I Hate Talking: By just saying that word.
• 15:45
  I Hate Talking: That's true.
• 15:47
  I Hate Talking: It does seem that that works and even you can accidentally create that particular context because I said those two numbers together and it was very popular, -- very -- popular.
• 16:01
  I Hate Talking: -- They all be talking about -- it.
• 16:02
  I Hate Talking: Remember Mr.
• 16:05
  I Hate Talking: -- Adams saying 6 -- 7?
• 16:06
  I Hate Talking: Well, maybe they'll be nostalgic for that event then, yeah.
• 16:08
  I Hate Talking: Now, I am the curious one that wants to know the meaning behind certain words, so I do agree that this is a cultural phenomenon that does have aspects of inclusivity and things like that with the sort of open inside joke where it's not necessarily a closed inside joke, but anybody can join in on that inside joke as you described from Doctor Becky.
• 16:36
  I Hate Talking: But the original meanings of the word 67 in the particular rap song, according to Psychology Today and this particular PhD that wrote this article.
• 16:53
  I Hate Talking: Robert Bartholomew.
• 16:55
  I Hate Talking: Refers to the fact that 67 appears to reference 67th Street in Chicago, an area known for crime and gun violence.
• 17:06
  I Hate Talking: So in the particular lyrics of the song, this particular person that is the subject of the song has committed a crime and leaves 6-7th Street in Chicago and hops on the highway.
• 17:20
  I Hate Talking: So maybe not the best historical use of that, but now is a viral meme and a nonsensical, quote unquote word that perhaps it is just what everyone makes it and the collective decides.
• 17:37
  I Hate Talking: So would you argue though, then that you don't like it because it comes from a potential dangerous street?
• 17:47
  I Hate Talking: Well, I think if it's used innocently enough and in the way that modern culture and the way that dictionary.com is using it, that it's fine, but if you're using it in a more divisive manner or negative manner where like you just did something bad and now you need a 67 dip on the highway or whatever it says, like, that's probably not a good use of the word, but I don't think that that is what the intent is nowadays.
• 18:16
  I Hate Talking: So, but there could be somebody that knows that, and now we've just informed them.
• 18:21
  I Hate Talking: So sorry about that, but that is the historical usage of 67 within that particular song.
• 18:27
  I Hate Talking: So what do you mean that knows that?
• 18:29
  I Hate Talking: I don't think any of the children that use this particular phrase know of the historical context of the 67 in the original song lyric.
• 18:42
  I Hate Talking: I was referring to gun violence.
• 18:44
  I Hate Talking: At least the young kids I know, they'll tell you it came from a song and that a TikTok basketball player.
• 18:52
  I Hate Talking: Did it, and that's when it went viral.
• 18:55
  I Hate Talking: That's what they'll tell you.
• 18:57
  I Hate Talking: So they get that concept.
• 18:58
  I Hate Talking: They don't know the song though.
• 19:00
  I Hate Talking: Nor have I ever heard this song.
• 19:03
  I Hate Talking: I've not either.
• 19:04
  I Hate Talking: I'm curious to listen to it now.
• 19:06
  I Hate Talking: I probably will not enjoy it, but -- I'll give it a try -- after we turn off the recording because we don't wanna get.
• 19:11
  I Hate Talking: That's true.
• 19:12
  I Hate Talking: It mentions baby shark, so can't be that bad, I guess.
• 19:15
  I Hate Talking: Wow.
• 19:15
  I Hate Talking: Sounds like a song that we could write about our lives then.
• 19:19
  I Hate Talking: Baby shark, 67.
• 19:21
  I Hate Talking: These are the words of our life.
• 19:23
  I Hate Talking: These are the words you'll be nostalgic for in 20 years.
• 19:27
  I Hate Talking: Perhaps so.
• 19:29
  I Hate Talking: So you, our listener will have to let us know if you agree or disagree with dictionary.com and their selection of the quote unquote word 67 for their quote unquote word of the year, or if you think that there was a better one out of the list of runner-ups, or even if you think dictionary.com even qualifies as a dictionary anymore.
• 19:53
  I Hate Talking: Can I argue too that I don't like what they posted.
• 19:57
  I Hate Talking: The word of the year already.
• 20:00
  I Hate Talking: Because we still have another 2 months left.
• 20:04
  I Hate Talking: So we've only done 56.
• 20:06
  I Hate Talking: Ah, it would have been so much better if it was 6/7 of the year over.
• 20:10
  I Hate Talking: That would have been so good, missed opportunity.
• 20:13
  I Hate Talking: That is true.
• 20:15
  I Hate Talking: I don't know.
• 20:15
  I Hate Talking: Maybe they're on an October release or November release for their particular words, and they just do that every October.
• 20:23
  I Hate Talking: What if something else goes viral before then?
• 20:25
  I Hate Talking: Well then that'd be the word of the year in 2026 from.
• 20:30
  I Hate Talking: November and December of 2025.
• 20:33
  I Hate Talking: I don't think they have a whole host of guidelines when they do this, so apparently not.
• 20:38
  I Hate Talking: So send us a text, email, or leave a comment and maybe there's somebody out there that would like to learn about 67 that is not aware of this viral word of the year.
• 20:52
  I Hate Talking: Yeah, share with them.
• 20:54
  I Hate Talking: Let them know.
• 20:55
  I Hate Talking: They can be in the in crowd too.
• 20:57
  I Hate Talking: Indeed.
• 20:59
  I Hate Talking: So, from your friends at I hate talking, until next time, remember, it is only through talking that we begin the journey to understanding.