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The Brits got us started last week when the UK’s Cambridge Dictionary announced their 2024 word of the year: Manifest. What with celebrities, social media influencers, and the GOAT herself Simone Biles talking up the practice of visualizing goals into reality, not to mention the word being looked up 130,000 times on Cambridge’s website, manifest proved itself to be an obvious winner. Not to be outdone, American-based Dictionary.com has now announced their pick for 2024, and it is a very mindful choice. Yes, our favorite TikTok etiquette expert Jools Lebron launched “Demure” into being word of the year! A feat I consider doubly impressive considering her profile only really took off in August. And even better, Dictionary.com is giving Jools due credit for the word’s soaring popularity. Which of course is very demure, very mindful of them.
“The word ‘demure’ experienced a meteoric rise in usage in 2024. Between January and the end of August, this term saw a nearly 1200% increase in usage in digital web media alone,” the announcement read. “This sharp rise is mainly attributed to TikToker Jools Lebron’s popularization of the phrase.”
According to Dictionary.com, the term ‘demure’ means to be characterized by shyness and modesty and to be reserved.
The original TikTok video posted by Lebron, 31, on Aug. 5, showed her sitting in a car with makeup on as a caption over the clip read, “How to be demure … at the workplace,” before she shared her tips to the camera.
“You see how I do my make-up for work? Very demure, very mindful,” Lebron, who identifies as transgender, said. “I don’t come to work with a green cut crease. I don’t look like a clown when I go to work. I don’t do too much, I’m very mindful while I’m at work.”
“See how I look very presentable? The way I came to the interview is the way I go to the job. A lot of you girls go to the interview looking like my Marge Simpson and go to the job looking like Patty and Selma — not demure,” the TikToker joked. “I’m very modest. I’m very mindful.”
The clip was quickly reshared and recreated in other videos shared on the platform with Lebron’s voiceover uttering the phrase “very demure” playing over the top. The video has since garnered five million likes on TikTok.
Lebron, who has become a social media star on the back of the video, acknowledged the announcement of ‘demure’ as the word of the year as she reposted the news on her Instagram Stories on Monday, Nov. 26.
“Between August 2023 and July 2024, there was no significant trend in the usage of the word ‘demure.’ By the week of Aug. 18, 2024, however, there was almost 14 times more interest in the term, highlighting the term’s almost overnight explosion in popularity,” Dictionary.com explained, referring to Lebron’s impactful video.
That Marge Simpson line gets me every time! Well done, Jools. As I’ve said of Ms. Lebron before, I love a gal who promotes etiquette and vocabulary. While “demure” used to primarily mean reserved, quiet, or modest, Dictionary.com notes that Jools’ TikTok tutorials have broadened its definition to mean refinement and sophistication, particularly as it pertains to appearance and/or behavior. If she’s wielding that kind of influence, I really hope Jools is able to make money from this! (Mindfully and demurely, of course.) She’s filed to trademark her catchphrase “very demure, very mindful,” after a brief scare that she’d missed out when some interloper filed to trademark ahead of her. American trademark law is nothing if not convoluted, but I still think Jools has a strong case in terms of having already clearly made the phrase her public signature. And if Dictionary.com says searches for “demure” increased 1,200% percent between January and August, how much more has that percentage skyrocketed since her August videos gained traction? I’d venture to guess by very un-demure margins.
photos via Instagram and YouTube/Good Morning America
