Merriam-Webster adds ‘selfie,’ more to dictionary
Screengrab from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/selfie
NEW YORK—The latest edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary has added 150 new words, from “selfie” to “poutine.”
Many of the words and terms relate to digital life and social media — spoiler alert, hashtag and tweep — while others are food-driven, including the Vietnamese staple pho and turducken, a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey.
Merriam-Webster relies on a network of observers who track down word usage. Three or four senior editors make the final selections.
E-waste made it into the update. So did e freegan, one who scavenges for free food in store and restaurant trash bins as a way to reduce consumption of resources.
Other new words in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate, along with the lookup database at Merriam-webster.com:
Poutine, a French Canadian snack or side dish of french fries covered with brown gravy and cheese curds; steampunk, a literary genre with dress-up followers that mashes up 19th-century Victorian or Edwardian societies with steam-powered technology; unfriend, which joins defriend; and hot spot, a place where Wi-Fi is available.
And still more: crowdfunding, big data, baby bump, digital divide, dubstep, fangirl and gamification, the process of adding game-like elements to something to encourage participation.
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