‘Manifest’ has manifested itself a place in history as Cambridge Dictionary’s word of the year for 2024.
After gaining traction with Gen Z on TikTok and other social media platforms, it’s entered the lexicon of pop star Dua Lipa and gymnast Simone Biles when discussing their own success.
With 130,000 searches for ‘manifest’ on the Cambridge Dictionary website this year, its publishers decided to name it ‘word of the year’.
Publishing manager Wendalyn Nichols said it ‘increased notably in lookups’, adding: ‘Its use widened greatly across all types of media due to events in 2024, and it shows how the meanings of a word can change over time.’
I guess you could call that ‘democracy manifest’, in the words of Jack Karlson, who shot to fame when he was arrested while enjoying a ‘succulent Chinese meal’.
The public willed it into being, like pop star Dua Lipa willed her career into being.
She often uses the term ‘manifest’ to discuss her chart-topping records and her headliner at Glastonbury this year.
On the Pyramid Stage in June, she said: ‘I’ve written this moment down and wished for it and dreamt it and worked so hard.’
‘Manifesting is a big thing for me’, she previously told TIME magazine.
‘I stand very firmly in the belief of putting things into the world. Subconsciously, you just work towards them. Nothing’s ever too big.’
But ‘to manifest’ hasn’t always meant ‘to imagine achieving something you want, in the belief that doing so will make it more likely to happen’.
Spelled ‘manyfest’ by English poet Geoffrey Chaucer in the 14th century, the oldest sense of the word was the adjective meaning ‘easily noticed or obvious’.
He also used it as a verb meaning ‘to show something clearly, through signs or actions’.
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For examples, lack of confidence in a company can manifest itself through a fall in share price.
Dissatisfaction with the Government can manifest itself through voters abandoning the Conservatives at the polls, or farmers protesting Labour in Westminster.
It’s also always had different meanings.
By the mid-1800s, the adjective was also used in American political idea of ‘manifest destiny’ – the belief that American settlers were destined by God to expand across North America.
This evolution of the word ‘manifest’ to convey a belief that belief in something can make it materialise is par for the course in the development of language.
But Dr Sander van der Linden, author of The Psychology of Misinformation and Professor of Social Psychology at Cambridge University, warned there could be a downside to it.
He said: ‘Manifesting is what psychologists call ‘magical thinking’ or the general illusion that specific mental rituals can change the world around us.’
‘Manifesting gained tremendous popularity during the pandemic on TikTok with billions of views, including the popular 3-6-9 method which calls for writing down your wishes three times in the morning, six times in the afternoon and nine times before bed.
‘This procedure promotes obsessive and compulsive behaviour with no discernible benefits.
‘But can we really blame people for trying it, when prominent celebrities have been openly ‘manifesting’ their success?
“’Manifesting’ wealth, love, and power can lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment.
‘Think of the dangerous idea that you can cure serious diseases simply by wishing them away.
‘There is good research on the value of positive thinking, self-affirmation, and goal-setting.
‘Believing in yourself, bringing a positive attitude, setting realistic goals, and putting in the effort pays off because people are enacting change in the real world.
‘However, it is crucial to understand the difference between the power of positive thinking and moving reality with your mind – the former is healthy, whereas the latter is pseudoscience.’
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