Word of the Day
pernicious
adjective
deadly; destructive; exceedingly harmful.
Why Dictionary.com chose pernicious
More about pernicious
- Pernicious entered English around 1515–25.
- Pernicious comes from the Latin word perniciōsus, meaning “ruinous.”
- Perniciōsus combines per-, “through,” and –nici-, a form of nex, “death, murder,” that has the stem nec-.
- A few terms that share this stem are necromancy, “a method of divination through alleged communication with the dead,” and necropsy, also known as an autopsy, “the examination of a body after death.”
EXAMPLES OF PERNICIOUS
- The pernicious effects of smoking can lead to severe health problems, including lung cancer and heart disease.
- The invasive species had a pernicious impact on the fragile ecosystem, wiping out native plants and disrupting the natural balance.
hallucinate
verb
(of artificial intelligence) to produce false information contrary to the intent of the user and present it as if true and factual.
Why Dictionary.com chose hallucinate
This sense of hallucinate, used in the context of AI and added to our dictionary this year, represents many profound ramifications for the future of language and life. In 2023, we saw a significant increase in dictionary lookups for the word along with increased use in digital media.
More about hallucinate
- Hallucinate was first recorded in 1595–1605 and comes from the Latin word ālūcinārī, a variant of the verb meaning “to wander mentally.”
- Use of hallucinate in the context of computer science dates back to a 1971 research paper on training computers to accurately “read” and output handwriting.
- Hallucinate, in the featured sense, began to appear in the context of machine learning and AI by the 1990s.
EXAMPLES OF HALLUCINATE
- Researchers found that the chatbot hallucinates more frequently than previously thought, with as much as 10% of its output being inaccurate.
- The virtual assistant began to hallucinate, providing users with helpful tips mixed with unreliable information.
Learn more about why Dictionary.com chose hallucinate as the 2023 Word of the Year here!
POV
noun, abbreviation
the position of the narrator in relation to the story, as indicated by the narrator's outlook from which the events are depicted and by the attitude toward the characters.
Why Dictionary.com chose POV
More about POV
- POV was first recorded in 1965–70.
- POV came about by abbreviation from the phrase point of view, which was first recorded around 1720.
- POV, as used in social media, indicates that a video is meant to be watched as if the viewer were present or the viewer is in a specific situation.
- POV videos are a popular video format on social media platforms.
EXAMPLES OF POV
- For her video of the children running amok in a messy house, the mother wrote that the POV was “Just our usual quiet morning routine.”
- The influencer wanted to make sure the POV of “When dad sees his buddy out in public” was clear in his new video so he put it in the text over the video.