Why My Word of the Year is Apricity
“Best of” and “of the year” lists are starting to be published. This year, the Oxford word of the year is "rizz," a word I did not know. According to my children, this word means sex appeal. They were unsurprised I was unaware of it. Apparently, it’s a shortening of the word charisma with a touch of spice added.
Merriam-Webster chose "authentic" as its word of the year over rizz and a few other candidates. Maybe, authentic rizz is the theme of 2023 with the continued ascent of Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce, and Beyoncé. At least these three seem like famous people I might want to spend time with.
But, I have a different choice for word of the year: apricity.
Apricity means the warmth of the sun in winter. Apricity was a word I recently learned, yet named a phenomenon I was acutely aware of. I love the feeling of the warm sun on my skin during a cold day. I love being outside, even in cold weather, and that feeling of warmth from the sun is part of the joy I find in braving wintry elements.
I also think apricity is a good metaphor for what we need at this moment.
I am a firm believer that the world has never been better. Global poverty is at historical lows. Early death has been greatly reduced across society. Infant and child mortality has shrunk. Women have greater rights. The world is a success.
Yes, this progress is halting—occasionally, we backslide—but the trend decade over decade is better. We need to continue to push for progress, and we are succeeding.
I understand why people often disagree with me when I state that the world is getting better. Our media ecosystem would have us believe the opposite of what the data tells us. It pushes us bad news, and we gobble it up, even if it overstates how bad things are.
I don’t blame us as individuals. Our brains are designed to take the most pressing threat and elevate it into our consciousness. We should worry about clear threats like that tiger over there or the lack of clean water. It’s human nature to worry.
But, our current problems are not proximal threats like tigers or contaminated water. Our problems are violence in faraway places, climate change, and "potentially hazardous asteroids." And, our worries are unlikely but horrific events like mass shootings or car accidents. Our level of worry is probably about the same, even if we have less reason to worry.
Technology only makes our worrying worse. Recently, I read someone fed the text of printed news stories into Chat-GPT and asked the bot to come up with headlines that accurately summarized the story as well as clickbait headlines that would generate clicks on the internet. The accurate headlines were measured and correct, while the clickbait headlines emphasized and sometimes exaggerated conflict. Guess which headlines were more like the actual headlines? Our news is sensationalized, and technology, including AI, is only going to make it worse.
We’re going to worry, and we’re going to have worries amplified in our modern world. To overcome our worries, we need apricity. We need to look for the warm spots in this winter of discontent.
My favorite people in my life provide apricity. They brighten my day, make me feel loved, and help me remember the world is a pretty good place. I need their apricity.
I also try to provide apricity. I want to help people around me feel warmth and care. I want them to believe that the world is a pretty good place. I aspire for apricity.
‘Rizz’ or ‘authentic’ may very well be the right choices for the 2023 Word of the Year. Maybe these words describe this year or capture something significant about this year. Time will tell.
But, what we need is apricity. For me, apricity will have staying power into 2024 as I think about the world, the kind of person I want to be, and what I look for in others. The world can be a cold and dark place. I need apricity.
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This writing may not be used for generative artificial intelligence without express written consent of the author. Image created by the author using Midjourney.
