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Recently the Merriam-Webster revealed a few of the 150 new words that will be added to its collegiate dictionary. Many of these words did not just appear this year but have been in use since the 1930s. Most of the words show us what technology and pop culture has done to our lifestyle.
With the introduction of social media, new words like 'hashtag', 'unfriend', 'catfish' and 'selfie' conjure their way out of our mouths, making us stop to think of what we just said and what it all means. What is a 'tweep' anyway, one might ask? Well, it is a person who uses the Twitter online message service to send and receive tweets. Don't worry, I am right there along side of you, shaking my head in disbelief.
But as I said before, not all the words are newer words. 'Fracking', 'fangirl', 'pho' and 'pepita' are words that were used before 1955. But why are these words being added? Well, this is a collegiate dictionary and hopefully it will bring them back to a time when technology was not the center of their lives.
It is very interesting reading this list of words that really are a smattering of what our lives were and what they are turning into. Even though the world is being over run by a bunch of tech savvy teenagers who text eachother via Twitter, sending tweets to all their friends of a selfie they just took (phew!), they are the next generation.
The best words being added don't even deal with technology or Twitter or Facebook. 'Turducken' and 'yooper' were found to be used in the 70s and 80s. These words just show how Americans can't make up their minds on what type of poultry to eat or how to categorize people from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I bet they were invented by someone from Wisconsin. Oh ya. Doncha know.