<p>Welcome to episode 78 of Lexis in which Raj &amp; Dan talk to John Kelly, former head of content at Dictionary.com, previous contributor to Merriam-Webster and Oxford Dictionaries, emoji lexicographer for Emojipedia, and school teacher. We discuss:</p><ul><li><p>How WOTY decisions were made at <a href="http://dictionary.com" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Dictionary.com</a></p></li><li><p>Whether we should celebrate WOTY for getting us talking about words, or be cynical about it as a marketing exercise</p></li><li><p>What makes a WOTY stick around</p></li><li><p>What qualities a good WOTY should have</p></li><li><p>The sketchier WOTYs that we've seen</p></li><li><p>2025’s crop of WOTY nominations - what we’ve seen so far and what might be to come</p></li><li><p>WOTY as a barometer of the times</p></li><li><p>‘Fascism’ as John’s WOTY/etymology of the year and why an old word is pertinent again. </p></li></ul><p>John’s blog is here: <a href="https://mashedradish.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://mashedradish.com/</a> </p><p>‘Fascism’ is here; <a href="https://mashedradish.com/2025/11/04/fascism-etymology-of-the-year-2025/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://mashedradish.com/2025/11/04/fascism-etymology-of-the-year-2025/</a> </p><p>He is also on Bluesky here: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/mashedradish.bsky.social" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://bsky.app/profile/mashedradish.bsky.social</a> </p><p>Some of the WOTY choices we discuss are covered in the articles and posts below: </p><p><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/rage-bait-2025-oxford-word-internet-language-defense/685143/?gift=h5ssLVeyARshEXLqfVq5YwEAlKAoVnByCEZqdOsZdV8&amp;utm_source=copy-link&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=share" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/12/rage-bait-2025-oxford-word-internet-language-defense/685143/?gift=h5ssLVeyARshEXLqfVq5YwEAlKAoVnByCEZqdOsZdV8&amp;utm_source=copy-link&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=share</a></p><p><a href="https://theconversation.com/2025s-words-of-the-year-reflect-a-year-of-digital-disillusionment-270769" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://theconversation.com/2025s-words-of-the-year-reflect-a-year-of-digital-disillusionment-270769</a></p><p><a href="https://time.com/7334730/word-of-the-year-2025-cambridge-collins-dictionary-oxford-merriam/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://time.com/7334730/word-of-the-year-2025-cambridge-collins-dictionary-oxford-merriam/</a> </p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/learning/what-teenagers-are-saying-about-6-7-and-the-era-of-brain-rot.html" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/04/learning/what-teenagers-are-saying-about-6-7-and-the-era-of-brain-rot.html</a> </p><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewjxqvqzgyo" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cewjxqvqzgyo</a></p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z9xbh4j" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z9xbh4j</a></p><p> </p><p><a href="https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/brain-rot-what-the-oxford-word-of" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/brain-rot-what-the-oxford-word-of</a> </p><p><a href="https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-words-that-define-our-enshittifed" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://www.bylinesupplement.com/p/the-words-that-define-our-enshittifed</a> </p><p><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/hooved-mammal.bsky.social/post/3m7ntojukdc2y" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://bsky.app/profile/hooved-mammal.bsky.social/post/3m7ntojukdc2y</a> </p><p><strong>Lexis is on Bluesky: </strong><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social</strong></a><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Contributors</strong></p><p><em>Lisa Casey</em> </p><p>blog: <a href="https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/</a> &amp; Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/LanguageDebates" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)</a></p><p><em>Dan Clayton</em> </p><p>blog: <a href="http://englishlangsfx.blogspot.com/" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">EngLangBlog</a> &amp; Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social</a> </p><p><em>Jacky Glancey</em> </p><p>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey</a></p><p><em>Raj Rana</em></p><p>Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys </p><p>Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys" rel="ugc noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys</a> </p><p><br /></p>