The job of a dictionary isn’t to create words, but to document how words are being used. The definitions reflect the meanings, but also context. Looking at some of the terms selected as 2023 Words of the Year, it seems older words gaining new context was a trend. Merriam-Webster picked “authentic,” likely driven by social media and AI; Oxford picked “rizz,” a slangy abbreviation of “charisma”; and Dictionary.com picked “hallucinate,” but specifically in the context of AI.
If those were the most influential words of 2023, what was happening 100 years ago? Let’s take a look at the words and phrases that became so widely used, they were added to the Oxford dictionary in 1923.
Hot Diggety Dog
This variant of another term — the expression “hot dog!” — is used as an exclamation of joy or surprise. It was first seen in the magazine section of The Washington Post in 1923: “Fred (admiringly) Yeh, she’s beginnin’ to warm up. Bill (ardently) Hot diggety dog!” Americans began using “hot dog” as a slang term circa 1906.
Ace
In tennis, an ace is an unreturnable shot, one that your opponent fails to touch, meaning a point is scored. This term entered the tennis lexicon in 1840, but in 1923, English speakers began using it as a transitive verb meaning “to score an ace against an opponent.”
Belsnickeling
This word has fallen out of use, but perhaps it should be brought back into vogue. It means “the action or custom of going about merrymaking at Christmas or New Year in disguise.”
French Kiss
This now-familiar expression, meaning “open-mouth kissing,” appeared in English in 1923 in the writings of J. Manchon. This and other words denoted as “French” in the English language likely stem from an Anglo-Saxon pairing of all things French with culture and sexual sophistication. Prior to the 1920s verb “French kissing,” a French kiss in the late 19th century to early 20th century was a kiss on each cheek.
Aha Experience
Oprah popularized the “aha moment” in the 21st century, but the original expression was “aha experience,” meaning “an experience of sudden insight or discovery.” It entered English in 1923 by way of a psychological journal: “The ‘aha-experience’ of insight bears a close resemblance to the well-known ‘water experience’ of Helen Keller.”
Jungle Gym
This type of climbing frame used in children’s playgrounds began as a trade name, filed with the U.S. Patent Office in January 1923. As with Band-Aid, Kleenex, or Scotch Tape, this is an example of genericization, the process by which a trademark or brand name becomes a generic expression.
Comfort Zone
We use this expression more figuratively today to mean a familiar psychological state where people feel at ease, but when it first entered English in 1923, it meant “the range of temperatures within which an environment is comfortable or habitable, especially within which no heating or cooling is considered necessary enough.” Interestingly, this is also the year “central air conditioning” entered the dictionary.
Amerenglish
This portmanteau (a word that blends two or more words to express some combination of their meanings) of American English entered the dictionary in 1923. At that time, many words reflecting the rising temperature of global politics came into use, including the adverb “Bolshevistically” and the expression “anti-fascism.”
Blood alcohol
Remember the historical context of the time — 1923 was at the beginning of the Prohibition era (1920-1933). This term for measuring the concentration of alcohol present in the blood first appeared in a 1923 issue of the Tohoku Journal of Experimental Medicine.
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