As 2021 nears its end, the firm Harpercollins, the publisher behind the printed and online Collins English Dictionary, has revealed “The Collins Word of the Year.” According to collinsdictionary.com, the word of the year is the abbreviation for non-fungible token, otherwise known as “NFT.”
Collins English Dictionary Word of the Year is NFT
Non-fungible tokenized (NFT) collectibles have gained approval from the publishing team behind the Collins English Dictionary. The unabridged Collins English Dictionary is published by the Harpercollins Company and was the first dictionary to be composed from a computer database.
On an annual basis, Collins likes to give a specific term the Word of the Year award, and this year the word “NFT” is the grand champion. “‘NFT’, the abbreviation of ‘non-fungible token’, the unique digital identifier that records ownership of a digital asset which has entered the mainstream and seen millions spent on the most sought-after images and videos,” the dictionary firm’s word of the year blog post explains. The post further adds:
It’s one of three tech-based words to make Collins’ longest list of Ten Words of the Year, which includes seven brand new words on Collinsdictionary.com.
The Informal Noun ‘Crypto’ and the Proposed Three-Dimensional Virtual Environment the ‘Metaverse’
Other words that were popular this year include words such as “metaverse” and “crypto.” The meaning of the word metaverse is “a proposed version of the internet comprising of three-dimensional virtual environments.” Collins English Dictionary says that the term “crypto” is an informal noun that is short for the word cryptocurrency, “a digital currency used for online purchases.”
Interestingly, in May 2019 the Associated Press (AP) or guidelines of the AP Stylebook, said writers, journalists and academics should “avoid using shorthand cryptography, which can be confused with cryptography.” AP’s suggestion was largely ignored by mainstream media and dedicated cryptocurrency news posts.
Collinsdictionary.com has been a lot more liberal with editorial submissions and added crowd-sourced neologisms in 2012. Collins also publishes an official Scrabble word list dictionary, and roughly 6,500 words are based on social media terms, slang, and the latest technology.
