Good morning. I’m back from my brief hiatus and I’m raring to go.
Back in January, I provided Dictionary.com’s word of the year (which was hallucinate) along with a short list of the runner-up words. Today, I have another gift of words for you from Dictionary.com. They recently published a list of over 300 new words that they’ve added to their dictionary. As a reminder, according to Dictionary.com, in order for a word to be added, it must meet the following criteria:
<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>It’s a word that’s used by a lot of people.
<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>It’s used by those people in largely the same way.
<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>It’s likely to stick around.
<![if !supportLists]>· <![endif]>It’s useful for a general audience.
Since they’ve added over 300 new words, I will share only one word from each category. If you want to review the entire list, you can find it here.
| New Word | Category | Definition |
| skiplagging (noun) | There’s a word for that | The practice of purchasing an air ticket for a flight with a layover at one’s true destination, getting off at the layover point, and skipping the last leg of the flight: a workaround to avoid paying a higher fare for a direct flight to one’s destination |
| stellar nursery (noun) | Science | A molecular cloud in which new stars are being formed |
| eco-chic (noun) | Fashion | Of or relating to a style, design, or product that is attractive and fashionable as well as eco-friendly and sustainable |
| Bechdel test (noun) | Entertainment | A test of gender stereotyping and inequality in fiction, having a number of variations and used especially with movies, based on whether the work includes at least two fairly important female characters who talk to each other about something besides a man |
| beer league (noun) | Sports | A community sports league, such as for hockey, softball, or soccer, whose members are amateurs of diverse ages and walks of life and play purely for the fun and socializing involved: games are usually accompanied or followed by alcohol and food |
| squish (noun) | Family and relationships | An intense feeling of infatuation that is not romantic or sexual in nature; a platonic crush |
| prebiotic (noun) | Health and wellness | A substance containing dietary fiber that stimulates the growth or activity of beneficial bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. |
| soju (noun) | Food and drink | A colorless, clear, distilled alcoholic beverage from Korea, often made from a mixture of rice and other starches such as sweet potatoes, wheat, barley, tapioca, etc. |
| greedflation (noun) | Economics and finance | A rise in prices, rents, or the like, that is not due to market pressure or any other factor organic to the economy but is caused by corporate executives or boards of directors, property owners, etc., solely to increase profits that are already healthy or excessive |
| superfog (noun) | Climate, weather, and environment | A combination of fog generated by weather conditions and wildfire smoke from damp, smoldering brush, leaves, trees, and other organic materials that often reduces visibility to less than 10 feet |
| energy poverty (noun) | Social issues | A lack of adequate access to safe, affordable sources of electricity or fuel for warmth, light, cooking, etc. |
| Uluru (noun) | Proper names | A large, isolated mass of red rock in central Australia, in southwestern Northern Territory: a sacred site for the Anangu people indigenous to the region, and a popular tourist attraction (also called Ayers Rock) |
| worlding (noun) | Even more words | The act or process of bringing a people, culture, nation, etc., into a global sphere of influence, especially the sphere thought of as dominated by Western countries |
The diligent lexicographers who write and edit dictionaries don’t only add and define new words, they also add new definitions to existing words to reflect common usage, they revise definitions that have become outdated or have changed, they provided pronunciation information and etymologies, and they decide which words to remove. They’re a hard-working group!
I hope you enjoy the rest of your day.
Donna Bradley Burcher |Technical Editor, Advisory | jack henry
Pronouns she/her/hers
9660 Granite Ridge Drive, San Diego CA 92123
Symitar Documentation Services
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