Dictionary.com has officially announced that “Demure” became the 2024 word of the year, having gained massive popularity during the summer; other contenders included “brainrot”, “brat”, and “weird”.
The Word of the Year 2024
On Monday, the site announced that the word has ‘quadruple in usage’ in 2024 and even had a 1200% increase in use between January and August, all thanks to the beauty influencer Jools Lebron, and her satirical videos with the phrase ‘very demure, very mindful’.
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“You watch how I put my makeup for work? Very demure. Very mindful,” Lebron says in one of her TikToks, with her makeup toned down a little from her usual black winged liner and fake lashes.
In the same way, the way I arrived at this interview is the way I arrive at the job. Many of you young ladies dress like Marge Simpson during the interview and then dress like Patty and Selma when at work. Not demure,” she continues and, referencing characters from the Simpson’s TV show.
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Demure Meaning
“Demure” in the past has been used to describe the discreet and shy manner in which ladies or women conducted themselves but with the new trends in social media usage, Dictionary.com noted that the term has shifted towards meaning what a person looks like and how he or she beha
In another video with the caption “obscurity of demiture,” Lebron says, “Every video is me just referencing me” after users speculated the joke means people should be judged by appearance at work. “That’s the joke!”
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The satire is on the bright side in a segment where the TikTok star claims she will be a proper lady and will be conscious of herself when going for a stroll on Las Vegas Strip. Her believable promises that she will be back in bed by 10 p.m. are followed by scenes of Lebron later that night, laughing uncontrollably at a club and wandering around trying to find her hotel room.
How Demure Word Gained Popularity in 2024 ?
Some of those celebrities include Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Lopez, and RuPaul, the host of the show ‘Drag Race,’ who have endorsed their brands using the trend.
In photos from a recent campaign for her shapewear brand Skims, Kardashian used the phrase in the caption: “See how I take my bts pictures…very cutsie (sic), very mindful, very demure…not like the other girls” Promoting her cocktail line Delola on Instagram Jennifer Lopez in a video where she is sipping elegantly wrote “very demure…very mindful,”.
“Just watch how I am reading this book?” Very demure. RuPaul don’t be dog ear, I put in a bookmark,” during a promotional video for the online store Allstora. And I do not share the final outcome with friends. Very considerate. And also my cell phone is in do-not-disturb mode. Very demure. Very mindful.”
Lebron also joined a video with makeup artist Patrick Ta who was recently raffling a new skin foundation from his line of beauty products.
Lebron, a transexual, explained that she has been able to fund the rest of her transition with the profits she has garnered from the “demure” videos. “I was crazy and out of control or so people thought and then I got some demurity and with that comes success,” she said on Jimmy Kimmel Live show. She has now garnered more than 2.3 million followers on the TikTok platform.
Dictionary.com further revealed that it based its choice of the word demure this year on an understanding of Twitter topics, headlines, and words that went beyond social media to become part of people’s vocabulary.
For 2023, the site’s word of the year was ‘hallucinate,’ in light of the growing popularity of chatbots and artificial intelligence that can tend to generate misinformation.
‘Brat’ which has also evolved its meaning in 2024 is one of the words that dominated both the on air and the online Collins Dictionary awarded it as the word of 2024.
Internet Reacts on “Demure”
The reaction of social media users was quite varied when they got this news. Some supported Lebron and her fame; others accused Dictionary.com of following the trends of the season.
This seems to me to be the absolute truth – we have lost the plot entirely. Not a fan of this decision by @Dictionary.com,” said one user, while another added: This was only popular for like a week. Do better @Dictionary.com.”
A third commented: This is so crazy and that is the word that altered her life and even became a word of the year. The impact is insane.”
