Platforms & apps

● Aliven.✎ 2

Y/N

'Your name' — the blank in a fanfiction where the reader inserts themselves — and 'Y/N' as a character in her own right, with a personality, a fandom and a whole genre of joke. The record's entry for the reader as the protagonist, and for the 'x reader' fic that made her.

▸ 2010peak 2020still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

AO3

Archive of Our Own — the fanfiction archive built by fans, run by volunteers, tagged with more precision than any library, and the winner of a Hugo Award in 2019. The record's entry for the site, and for 'AO3 tags' as a genre of joke about specificity.

▸ 2009peak 2019still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Anti

A person in a fandom who is against a character, a ship, or a celebrity — an anti — and, in fandom discourse, the side that believes some fiction should not be written. The record's entry for the opposition as an identity, filed for the word.

▸ 2009peak 2017still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 7

Blue Check

A badge meaning the account was who it said it was. Sold for $8 a month from November 2022, at which point it meant the opposite.

▸ 2009peak 2016†2022

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Chatroulette

The site, built by a 17-year-old in Moscow in November 2009, that connected you by webcam to a random stranger and let either of you press 'next' — which for about four months in 2010 was the most talked-about thing on the internet, until everyone worked out what roughly one in eight strangers was doing. The record notes it gave English the verb 'to next someone', and that Omegle did the same job with less press.

▸ 2009peak 2010still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 7

Duckface

Lips pushed out and together for the camera. Named, mocked, and gone within four years; the pout was replaced by not smiling at all.

▸ 2009peak 2011†2013

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

FarmVille

A farm that sent notifications to your friends when your crops needed them. Eighty million players at peak; died the day Flash did, unmourned by the people it had spammed.

▸ 2009peak 2010†2020

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Formspring

The anonymous-question site, launched in November 2009, where a teenager invited the world to 'ask me anything' and the world, anonymously, told them what it thought of their face. Reached 20 million users by 2011, became a byword for bullying, closed in March 2013, and was reborn briefly as Spring.me before disappearing. The record notes Ask.fm inherited its users and its problems within the year.

▸ 2009peak 2011†2013

☠ Deadn.

Foursquare Mayor

The title given to whoever checked in most at a place. Coffee shops gave mayors free drinks; the mayors were mostly the staff.

▸ 2009peak 2011†2014

↺ Undeadn.✎ 7

Gowalla

Checking in to places, with better stamps than Foursquare. Bought and closed by Facebook in 2012, and relaunched in 2023 by a founder with the domain still in a drawer.

▸ 2009peak 2010†2012

☠ Deadphr.

Move Fast and Break Things

A company's official permission to itself. Retired by the company in 2014 in favour of Move Fast With Stable Infrastructure, which nobody has ever said aloud.

▸ 2009peak 2012†2014

● Aliveabbr.✎ 2

PSA

'PSA:' — the prefix for an announcement the poster believes is important: a warning, a correction, a reminder to drink water. The record's entry for the broadcast from one person to everyone, and for the fact that most PSAs are opinions with a badge.

▸ 2009peak 2015still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Shoutout

A public mention — 'shoutout to my mum' — from radio into the creator economy, where it is a product: bought, sold, and exchanged. The record's entry for the acknowledgement that became an advertisement.

▸ 2009peak 2015still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 4

Subtweet

A complaint about someone who is not named but will know. Fading with the platform it was named for; the behaviour has moved to Instagram Stories and lost its name in transit.

▸ 2009peak 2014still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Vaguebooking

Posting something deliberately vague to provoke concern — 'some people just don't get it' — as the Facebook art of 2009–12, and the ancestor of the subtweet. The record's entry for the status that was a fishing line, and for the 'u ok hun?' it was designed to catch.

▸ 2009peak 2012still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

App Store

Apple's software shop, opened on 10 July 2008 with 500 apps including a $999 'I Am Rich' screen, which invented 'there's an app for that', the 30 per cent cut, the one-star review and the profession of app developer. The record notes the term became generic within a year, Apple sued over it and lost, and that 'the app store' now means whichever one your phone has.

▸ 2008peak 2012still up

● Alivev.✎ 3

Blocked

Cut off entirely — 'blocked and reported', 'blocked so fast' — as the internet's ultimate boundary, and, since 2016, a boast: 'I got blocked by a celebrity'. The record's entry for the wall as a verb, and for the 'blocked' screenshot as a trophy.

▸ 2008peak 2016still up

● Aliven.

Context Collapse

Every audience you have, in the same room, reading the same post. Named by academics and understood by anyone whose boss has found their Instagram.

▸ 2008peak 2014still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 2

Dash (Tumblr)

The Tumblr dashboard, shortened — 'my dash' — as the feed of the platform that had feelings about everything, and 'dash' as a place: 'this is all over my dash'. The record's entry for the timeline of the other website, and for the era when it mattered.

▸ 2008peak 2013still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Dropbox

The folder that syncs — Drew Houston's 2008 answer to forgetting a USB stick, which grew by giving free space for referrals until every student had 'the Dropbox' for group projects and every office had a shared folder named 'FINAL final v3'. Peaked as a word around 2012, and dying because Google, Apple and Microsoft each built one into the system. The record notes 'Dropbox me the file' has quietly become 'just share the link'.

▸ 2008peak 2012still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Evernote

The elephant-logo note app, launched in June 2008 with the promise to 'remember everything', which by 2013 held every receipt, recipe and web clipping of a certain kind of productive person, and which then spent a decade adding a food app, a chat feature and price rises until the notes were the last thing it did well. Sold to Bending Spoons in 2023. The record notes 'my Evernote' is now said the way people say 'my attic'.

▸ 2008peak 2013still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Haul

Showing the camera what you bought — the bags, the try-on, the price — as a YouTube genre from 2008 that became a TikTok genre and then, with the fast-fashion hauls of 2020, a discourse. The record's entry for shopping as a performance.

▸ 2008peak 2015still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Incognito Mode

Chrome's private-browsing window, launched in December 2008 with a little spy in a hat, which does not save your history on your machine and does nothing whatsoever about your employer, your ISP or Google — a fact that cost Google a $5 billion lawsuit settlement in 2024. The record notes the mode was nicknamed 'porn mode' from its first week, and that its main honest use is checking flight prices and looking up gifts.

▸ 2008peak 2016still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Loss

A four-panel webcomic about a miscarriage, from a gaming comic that was never serious before, which became the most abstracted meme in history: four panels, a line, two lines, a line and a lying-down line — 'is this loss?' — visible in anything. The record's entry for the meme that became geometry.

▸ 2008peak 2018still up

● Aliven.✎ 5

Photobomb

Appearing uninvited in a stranger's photograph. Given a permanent place in the language by a stingray and by Benedict Cumberbatch at the Oscars.

▸ 2008peak 2014still up

◐ Dyingv.✎ 2

Rooting

The Android version of jailbreaking — gaining administrator access to your own phone so you can remove the carrier's apps, install a custom ROM and, in the era of the Nexus, feel like a hacker for an evening. Born with the first Android phone in late 2008, peaked around 2012 on the XDA forums, and dying because banking apps refuse to run on rooted phones and the phones stopped needing it. The record notes 'is it rooted' was once a question about a device and is now a question about a person's tomatoes.

▸ 2008peak 2012still up

● Aliven.✎ 2

Whataboutism

Answering a criticism with a different criticism — 'what about…' — as a Cold War term the internet revived, and the record's entry for the argument that never engages and always continues. Everyone does it; everyone accuses everyone else of it.

▸ 2008peak 2017still up

☠ Deadn.

Fail Whale

A whale carried by birds, shown whenever Twitter was down, which was often. Retired when the site became reliable, which was briefly the case.

▸ 2007peak 2009†2013

● Aliven.✎ 6

Hashtag

A word with a hash in front of it, proposed by a user and initially rejected by the company. Now spoken aloud by people who have never used one.

▸ 2007peak 2013still up

▲ Fossiln.✎ 5

I Can Has Cheezburger

The site that turned lolcats into a business with a headcount. Still online; nobody has needed to visit since the cats got captioned everywhere else.

▸ 2007peak 2008†2014

◐ Dyingv.✎ 2

Jailbreak

To break an iPhone out of Apple's restrictions so it can run software from outside the App Store — first done within days of the iPhone's July 2007 launch, industrialised by Cydia in 2008, and at its peak in 2011 a rite of passage that gave you a custom lock screen and a phone that occasionally restarted itself. Dying because Apple copied the good ideas one by one, and the record notes the word's later life describing AI models talked out of their rules.

▸ 2007peak 2011still up

◐ Dyingn.

Listicle

An article that is a numbered list. Fading with the sites that lived on it, though this dictionary is, technically, one.

▸ 2007peak 2013still up

● Alivev.✎ 3

Reblog

To repost with a comment attached, so that the post grows as it travels — the reblog — as Tumblr's core verb and the form that made its posts into long, strange, collaborative essays. The record's entry for the repost that could talk back.

▸ 2007peak 2013still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Sent From My iPhone

The default signature that became a status symbol, an excuse for typos, and a joke — 'Sent from my iPhone' rewritten as 'Sent from my fridge'. The record's entry for the automatic line that said more about the sender than the email.

▸ 2007peak 2011still up

↺ Undeadn.✎ 2

Skeuomorphism

Software pretending to be leather, felt and glass. Removed in 2013 as childish, and returned in 2025 as glass again, because the alternative had been flat for twelve years.

▸ 2007peak 2011†2013

● Alivev.✎ 3

Unfollow

To stop following, and the small social death of noticing you have been unfollowed, tracked by apps built for the purpose. The record's entry for the verb that did not exist before 2007 and now ends more friendships than arguments do.

▸ 2007peak 2014still up

● Alivev.✎ 5

Unfriend

To remove someone from your friends list. Word of the Year in 2009, and one of only two in this dictionary to have survived the title.

▸ 2007peak 2009still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Watch Instantly

The name under which Netflix, then a DVD-by-post service founded in 1997, first let members stream films and television to a computer in January 2007. The name went as streaming became the product; the thing became the way everyone watches everything. The record's entry for the button that ate the company that offered it.

▸ 2007peak 2010†2011

● Aliven.✎ 3

Wi-Fi Password

The string of letters on the bottom of a router, and the first thing a guest asks for in any house, café or hotel since roughly 2010, ahead of the bathroom. The record notes a genre of chalkboard signs offering it in exchange for a purchase, the invention of the QR-code-on-the-fridge, and that 'the wifi password' is the closest thing modern hospitality has to bread and salt.

▸ 2007peak 2015still up

◐ Dyingn.✎ 3

Inbox Zero

Merlin Mann's 2006 doctrine of processing every email to an empty inbox — the 'zero' being, he insisted, the amount of attention the inbox should hold, not the number of messages, a distinction that nobody kept. Peaked around 2012 as a productivity religion and is dying because the inbox won. The record notes that people who have achieved Inbox Zero tell you, and that people who have 41,000 unread emails also tell you, with more peace.

▸ 2006peak 2012still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 4

Scene Kid

Neon, side fringes, raccoon tails and a MySpace name with an X in it. The last subculture to be organised around a single website.

▸ 2006peak 2008†2011

◐ Dyingn.✎ 7

Tweet

A post on Twitter. Officially renamed 'post' by the platform's new owner in 2023 and ignored by everyone, which is the most unity the site has shown.

▸ 2006peak 2013still up

● Aliven.✎ 3

Unboxing

Opening a box on camera, slowly, with commentary — from phones in 2006 to toys in 2016 (when a child unboxing made millions) to blind boxes in 2025. The record's entry for the packaging as the show, and the reason children watch other children open things.

▸ 2006peak 2016still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Zune

Microsoft's iPod, launched in November 2006 in brown, with a Wi-Fi song-sharing feature that let a track play three times before it expired and a slogan, 'Welcome to the Social', that nobody joined. Discontinued in October 2011 after selling a few million units to people who still defend it. The record notes the Zune was the punchline of the late 2000s and that the punchline has since become an object of genuine affection, as punchlines do.

▸ 2006peak 2008†2011

☠ Deadabbr.✎ 2

BBM

BlackBerry Messenger — the free, PIN-based chat between BlackBerry owners, launched in August 2005, that gave the world the 'D' and 'R' delivered-and-read marks and made 'what's your PIN' a flirting line from Lagos to London until around 2011. Kept alive on Android and iPhone after the phones died, then closed for consumers on 31 May 2019. The record notes the 2011 London riots were organised on it, which was the last time it was newsworthy.

▸ 2005peak 2011†2019

☠ Deadv.✎ 2

Bury (Digg)

To downvote a story on Digg into oblivion — the site's anonymous, unexplained negative vote, which sank submissions off the front page and, according to years of complaint, was operated by a coordinated 'bury brigade' with political tastes. Introduced in 2005 alongside the digg, buried itself when the v4 redesign of August 2010 removed it, and the record files it as the first downvote people accused of having an agenda.

▸ 2005peak 2007†2010

● Aliven.✎ 3

Crack Ship

A pairing so unlikely it must be a joke — a crack ship — and 'rarepair' for one that is merely unpopular. The record's entry for the relationship nobody asked for, some of which, over time, became canon, and for the fans who were there first.

▸ 2005peak 2013still up

☠ Deadn.✎ 3

Gchat

The chat box inside Gmail — officially Google Talk from August 2005, but never called that by anyone — which for a decade was how office workers gossiped, couples argued and interns learned what 'brb' meant, all in a green-dot sidebar the boss could see. The word died as Hangouts and then Chat replaced it, and the record notes 'gchat me' was last heard unironically around 2017.

▸ 2005peak 2010†2017