It comes as no surprise given all the chatter about it, that Collins, the publishers of the dictionary, have awarded the title of Word of the Year to AI, the Abbreviation for artificial intelligence, which they define as “the modelling of human mental functions by computer programs”. Perhaps I am being unduly pedantic but can an abbreviation really be a word? Have the lexicographers been hacked by a rogue piece of AI?

The Shortlist included a couple of horrors where the prefix de- is used to denote a negative – de-influencing, an influencer who warns their followers to avoid certain products, lifestyle choices etc, and de-banking, having your bank account closed for reasons other than financial status. Nepotism or cases of Bob’s your uncle have given rise to nepo baby someone who owes their start in life or success to the influence of their famous parents, while a canon event is something that is “essential to the formation of an individual’s character or identity”.

Another prefix that has become trendy is ultra-, appearing in two words that made the shortlist, ultra-processed as in foods made up of “ingredients with little or no nutritional value” which have been “prepared using complex industrial methods”, and ultra-low emissions zone, which now embraces all of London in an attempt to drive out polluting vehicles.

A wonder drug, semaglutide, supposed to suppress appetite and cause weight loss, appears on a list which could have done a shot of it itself, and for the sports fan Bazball, a deluded attempt to change the style of test cricket, makes what is likely to be a short-lived but lively appearance at the crease.

For better or worse, AI is likely to outlive all the neologisms that 2023 has spawned.