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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

enshittification en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ɛn-/
  • (Southern-England) audio
  • /ɪnˌʃɪtɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁én Proto-Italic *en Proto-Italic *en- Latin in- Old French en-bor. Middle English en- English en- Proto-Germanic *skitiz Proto-West Germanic *skiti Proto-West Germanic *-jā Proto-West Germanic *skittjā Old English sċitte Old English *sċite Middle English schite English shit Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -ficātiō Old French -ificationbor. Middle English -ificacioun English -ification English enshittification From en- + shit + -ification. The term was popularized and took its specific meaning from the writings of Canadian-British-American blogger, journalist, and science fiction author Cory Doctorow in 2022–2023, although isolated usage exists from 2013 (see quotations below).

Meanings

  1. (Internet, uncountable, vulgar) The phenomenon of online platforms or services gradually degrading in quality, often by promoting advertisements, recurring payment, and sponsored content, in order to increase profits; (loosely) the process of becoming worse.
    • 1000000% true. The real cause of the "enshittification" of the UK. 2019 April 23, @Uncle_Music, Twitter (post), archived from the original on 24 Aug 2026:
    • Musk perceived instantly that he had one of the perfect conditions for enshittification. Twitter had a multi-million-strong user base, who had built up relationships and reputations among themselves over years. 2023 November 25, Jane Cassidy, “Matheson might just be the latest victim of ongoing ‘platform decay’”, in The National, Glasgow, page 20:
    • It can seem like just another symptom of the broader enshittification of our age and plutocratic economic order. 2026 May 14, Kali Holloway, “AI Is for the Poors”, in The Nation, volume 322, number 5, via EBSCOhost, →ISSN, page 14:
    • But it's not just users who are effectively incarcerated by enshittification. The advertisers and vendors who are the real customers of tech platforms are also prisoners. 2023 March 11, John Naughton, “Users, advertisers – we are all trapped in the 'enshittification' of the internet”, in The Observer, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 Apr 2023:
    • Both switching costs and network effects tend to lead to enshittification because platform providers see early adopters as an investment in future profits. 2023 March 3, Tim Harford, “The enshittification of apps is real. But is it bad?”, in Financial Times, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2023:
    • Here is how platforms die: First, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die. ¶ I call this enshittification, and it is a seemingly inevitable consequence arising from the combination of the ease of changing how a platform allocates value, combined with the nature of a "two-sided market," where a platform sits between buyers and sellers, hold each hostage to the other, raking off an ever-larger share of the value that passes between them. 2023 January 28, Cory Doctorow, “The ’Enshittification’ of TikTok”, in Wired, San Francisco, Calif.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Jan 2024:
    • Wow. The Onion's AV Club just turned into a pile of hot garbage. Who is behind the ongoing enshittification of web design? 2013 November 19, @St_Rev, Twitter, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2023:
    • Ultimately, it doesn't matter if Amazon's enshittification is because [Jeff] Bezos was a cynic or because he sold out. Once Amazon could make more money by screwing its customers, that screw-job became a fait accompli. 2022 November 28, Cory Doctorow, “How monopoly enshittified Amazon”, in Pluralistic, archived from the original on 26 Mar 2023:

Antonyms

engoodening · deshittification

Relateds

AIpocalypse · human fracking · enshittify · shittiness · shittification · you will own nothing and be happy · Muskification · Black Mirror

Synonyms

enshittening · crapification · platform decay

Translations (26)

de Enshittification (Internet phenomenon) · ca merdificació (Internet phenomenon) · fr merdification (Internet phenomenon) · pt bostificação (Internet phenomenon) · he התחראות (Internet phenomenon) · nl verkuttificering (Internet phenomenon) · nl verteringisering (Internet phenomenon) · pt embostificação (Internet phenomenon) · bg олайня́ване (Internet phenomenon) · es mierdificación (Internet phenomenon) · nl platformverval (Internet phenomenon) · pt merdificação (Internet phenomenon) · eu kakazte (Internet phenomenon) · ru дерьмофика́ция (Internet phenomenon) · pt enshittificação (Internet phenomenon) · sv skitifiering (Internet phenomenon) · pt esmerdeamento (Internet phenomenon) · pl rozgównianie (Internet phenomenon) · nl verkuttificatie (Internet phenomenon) · bg еншитифика́ция (Internet phenomenon) · pl gównowacenie (Internet phenomenon) · cmn 垃圾化 (Internet phenomenon) · fr emmerdification (Internet phenomenon) · he התחרבנות (Internet phenomenon) · it sminchiamento (Internet phenomenon) · es enmierdamiento (Internet phenomenon)

wikipedia: American Dialect Society · wikipedia: Macquarie Dictionary