I enjoy seeing the words that Merriam-Webster adds to the dictionary each year. While I’m not exactly a stan - “an extremely or excessively enthusiastic and devoted fan” - I do like seeing what they come up with. The list is always a pretty good finger on the cultural pulse.
Overall, W-M added 640 words. I haven’t seen the full list, but the ones I’ve seen plucked out are pretty good.
There are original ones – like stan – and old words with new definitions.
Remember when we used to say that no too snowflakes are alike? When we used to stick out our tongues to catch one? When a highlight of the Christmas pageant was the Grade 3 girls rendition (with dance) of “Here Comes Susie Snowflake?” These days, a snowflake is someone who thinks they’re special. Or for “someone who is overly sensitive.” Widely used as a diss on Twitter.
Other repurposed words include purple. Given the shorthand references we make to blue states and red states, I guess it was inevitable that swing states would become purple.
Tailwind and headwind made it onto the list because they’re “now often used figuratively to refer to a force or influence that either helps or hinders progress.” Seems to me that this figurative usage has been in use for quite a while. Guess it just never made it definitionally up until now.
I like peak - something that’s at the “height of its popularity, use, or attention.” But I do believe there may be another meaning, and that’s quintessence. As a 3 a.m. spittle-flying (metaphorically speaking) rage tweet in which Trump goes after traitorous Democrats and fake news would be peak Trump. Maybe I’m misusing peak. Or maybe I’m on to something. Listen up, Merriam-Webster. Some of the newbies are words I was vaguely familiar with. I’d heard swole, a description of someone who’s muscle bound. Not anything I’m personally familiar with, but I have heard it in passing.
And although I don’t watch the awards shows, I do know the word EGOT, which stands (stans?) for someone who’s won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony.
But bottle episode? It’s not like I never watch television, but I guess the series I watch – like Bosch, and Shameless – don’t tend to do any purely talking head episodes in which there’s only one setting for the entire show.
There are other compound words.
Compound terms are those made up of two or more words that have become lexicalized and are no longer self-explanatory—so they need their own definitions.
Maybe I’m tired, but I feel that this paragraph could easily have been found in the Collected Works of Jacques Derrida. If someone wants to ‘splain it to me, have at it.
Anyway, the compound words that have been lexicalized (and, to me, do seem self-explanatory…) are page view, on-brand, garbage time, go-cup, and screen-time. As I noted, these all seem pretty self-explanatory to me. Maybe I’m must a natural born lexicalizer.
There are a few science words. For some reason, the one I like most from that subset is traumatology: the study, diagnosis, and treatment severe, acute physical injuries sustained by individuals requiring immediate medical attention. But please let me extend that definition a bit to include the study of blue and purple staters who do not understand for a New York (blue state) minute how anyone can approve of DJT.
Fitbit and all the other health and fitness monitoring devices appear to be having an impact on the words of the world. I give you salutogenesis which asks us to think about our health in terms of “promoting well-being rather than measuring disease.” (Averaging 11.5 steps+ per day, baby. I’m just a living, breathing salutogenesis kind of gal.)
There are a couple of goodies from the business world.
As much as folks try to convince themselves that working freelance is a far better way to live than wage slavery (yes and no: good for me at this point in my life, but I’m happy I had real work for real companies), we may live to regret that the gig economy became a thing.
And it’s about time that vulture capitalism has gotten the recognition it deserves.
In addition to EGOT and bottle episode – (bottle episode? really?) – entertainment brought us the word buzzy. While buzzy is a perfectly good word for something that generates buzz, I can guarantee you that no Bostonian of a certain age will ever hear the word buzzy and not immediate think of Buzzy’s Roast Beef, a crummy looking late-night sandwich joint that stood for years right next door to Mass General Hospital and right next to the Charles Street Jail. Even though at one point I lived less than a 2 minute walk away, I could never bring myself to eat there. But I do know a few folks who did and lived to tell the tale. One of those is my old friend Tommy, husband to my even older friend Joyce. They’re coming to Boston in September and I think they’ll be staying at the Liberty Hotel, the fancy boutique hotel that occupies the old Charles Street Jail and uses the Buzzy’s site as its entryway.
One of the wonderful things about words is word association. Thank you snowflake, thank you buzzy for sending me on a couple of strolls down memory lane.
Meanwhile, I have a suggestion for next year: fren, which is doggo-speak for friend.
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Source throughout: Merriam-Webster
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