Merriam-Webster added 455 words to its venerable Dictionary, including many abbreviations that are now common on social media.
The nearly 200-year old Springfield, Massachusetts-based company stated on its website that “just as the language never ceases evolving, the dictionary also never stops expanding.” “New terms and new uses of existing terms are constants in a living vocabulary.”
According to the dictionary company, the informal and quick nature of texting, messaging and tweeting has contributed to “a vocabulary rich in efficient and abbreviated expression.”
There are two: “TBH” which is an abbreviation of “to be truthful” and “FTW,” which is an abbreviation of “for the win.”
Merriam-Webster explains FTW as being used “specially to express approval or support.” FTW can be used in social media to acknowledge a funny or clever response to a question, meme, or other query.
It says that “amirite” can be used to quickly write “am I correct,” which is English spelling inconsistent.
In addition to the new entries, the coronavirus pandemic is also prominent in the collection.
Partisan politics added more slang into the dictionary, such as “whataboutism,” Merriam-Webster’s definition of “the act or practice responding to an accusation or wrongdoing by claiming an offense committed another is similar or worse.” The dictionary also notes that “whataboutery,” for Britons, is more common.
The dreaded “vote a-ramas”, which have become a regular feature in the U.S. Congress, can be explained as follows: “an unusually high number of votes and debates that take place in one day on a single piece legislation to which an infinite number of amendments may be introduced, debated and voted upon.”
Fluffernutter is a sandwich made of peanut butter, marshmallow cream, and white bread.
The cold sweetened drink made of ground rice or almonds, and often flavored with cinnamon or other flavors, Horchata (or chicharron), as well as the popular fried pork belly snack or pig skin snack, made it to the list.
As for “dad bod”? According to the dictionary, “dad bod” is a “physique that is typical of an average father.
