And the Dictionary.com Word of the Year Is... You've Got to Be Kidding Me

I wonder if I'm the only goof who bookmarked Dictionary.com because it was the very first entry in Google under "dictionary."

This was 20 years ago, and a three-year-old baboon knew more about computers and the internet than I did then.

My computer knowledge now exceeds that of a four-year-old baboon, but most of the rest of it escapes me. I'm still kind of hazy on what a "meme" is, and every time I see "FAFO," I have to look up what the acronym means.

So shoot me. I'm 71.

Dictionary.com has published a "Word of the Year" since 2010, according to my best friend Gemini. "They have continued the tradition every December since, basing the selection on search trends on the site and the news events driving them," says my AI buddy.   

No, it's not December. It's not even November. But Dictionary.com is apparently not above trying to generate a viral meme (Ha! How's that?) to earn a little extra scratch. So, this year, they chose a "Word of the Year" that isn't even a word. It's two numbers: six and seven (designated as "6-7"). It's all the rage among Generation Alpha, which only reinforces my belief that the Idiocracy is fast approaching.

If you're unfamiliar with the nonsensical generational shorthand created by social science researchers, Gen Alpha is kids born between 2010 and 2024. They are the first honest-to-goodness, wholly, completely, totally digitally connected generation in human history. And God help us.

If you're wondering what 6-7 means, don't ask a member of Gen Alpha. They'll probably laugh at you for not getting the joke. What's the joke? 

The "joke" is that 6-7 is meaningless. There is no explanation for it. It exists as a standalone symbol of Gen Alpha's superiority to the rest of us dullards. It's an inside joke about an inside joke. 

Give Dictionary.com some credit. They had a little fun with it.

“If you’re the parent of a school-aged child, you might be feeling a familiar vexation at the sight of these two formerly innocuous numerals,” Dictionary.com said. 

“If you’re a member of Gen Alpha, however, maybe you’re smirking at the thought of adults once again struggling to make sense of your notoriously slippery slang. And if it’s a surprise to you that 67 (pronounced ‘six-seven’) is somehow newsworthy, don’t worry, because we’re all still trying to figure out exactly what it means."

New York Sun:

Little is known about the phrase’s exact origin, but there are theories. Some say the phrase originated from rapper Skrilla’s 2024 drill track “Doot Doot (6 7).” Skrilla isn’t much help. “I never put an actual meaning on it, and I still would not want to,” he told The Wall Street Journal. “That’s why everybody keeps saying it.”

Others tie the line to Chicago’s 67th Street or a police code. Then there’s the LaMelo Ball theory. The Skrilla song went viral on TikTok, in part due to an edit featuring NBA player LaMelo Ball, who is 6 feet 7 inches tall. The video highlighted this detail and played the song, cementing the connection in basketball and internet culture.

Wherever it came from, the phrase became the rallying cry of Gen Alpha and Gen Z, shouted in classrooms, TikTok videos, and grocery store aisles — often stretched out to sound like six-sev-eeennn — with the kind of fervor usually reserved for actual words. 

“It’s part inside joke, part social signal and part performance,” director of lexicography for the Dictionary Media Group at IXL Learning, Steve Johnson, told the Huffington Post. “When people say it, they’re not just repeating a meme; they’re shouting a feeling. It’s one of the first Words of the Year that works as an interjection—a burst of energy that spreads and connects people long before anyone agrees on what it actually means.”

I never thought incoherence could be so cool. It's a shame Gen Alpha can't vote. Kamala Harris would have won in a landslide.

For some of you younger readers (over 30), this may be your first experience with the intergenerational communications gap; a moment when you realize you're all growed up and no longer a teenager or even a young adult. 

For me, it was the first time I heard and saw ZZ Top. It was then I knew that the world had passed me by. It wasn't long after that seminal, life-changing moment that I got hooked on Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett — just like my dad and mom.

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