‘Skibidi’, ‘gen alpha’ and ‘delulu’ are among more than 6,000 words largely popularised by internet culture that were added to the Cambridge Dictionary this year. Some, like skibidi, are nonsense words, while others are a contraction of sorts – ‘delulu’ refers to a person’s delusional take on reality. Others are names for genuinely new things, like a ‘mouse jiggler’ (software that mimics a moving computer mouse).
According to the dictionary’s lexical programme manager, Colin McIntosh, only words his team believes have “staying power” make their way into the dictionary. “Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the Dictionary,” he noted in a post on its website.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘skibidi’ as humorous slang with “different meanings such as ‘cool’ or ‘bad’” and says it “can be used with no real meaning as a joke”. The word was originally used in scat singing – heavy on improvisation – and reached the mainstream via a viral series on YouTube titled “Skibidi Toilet”. The word skibidi is especially popular amongst internet users born in the 2010s and early 2020s, collectively known as ‘gen alpha’ – another new Cambridge Dictionary entry.
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‘Delulu’, meanwhile, is a slang word that means “believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to.” Its most high-profile usage this year came via Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who used the word to criticise his opponents in parliament. His exact phrase was “delulu with no solulu”, which expands into “delusional with no solution.”
Other new entries relate to remote working, such as ‘work wife’ and the aforementioned ‘mouse jiggler’. Words from the tech realm, like the portmanteau ‘broligarchy’, have also been added. Broligarchy means “a small group of men, especially men owning or involved in a technology business, who are extremely rich and powerful, and who have or want political influence.”
Notable Cambridge Dictionary entries from last year included ‘the ick’ and ‘speedrun’, which were respectively attributed to the popularity of the reality TV show Love Island and gaming.
