Whenever I asked my mom how to spell a word back in elementary school, she’d always respond with, “Go look it up in the dictionary!” which never made much sense to me. I wasn’t trying to determine the word’s meaning; I just wanted to know how it was spelled, and if I didn’t know that, how was I supposed to find it in the dictionary? Oh motherly advice…
But some of Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary’s new additions are both easy to spell and contain provocative definitions, such as “f-bomb,” “sexting,” “man cave” and more. These additions were published today in the 114 year old dictionary.
Kory Stamper, an associate editor for Merriam-Webster, told the Associated Press
“We saw another huge spike after Dick Cheney dropped an F-bomb in the Senate in 2004. It’s a word that is very visually evocative. It’s not just the F-word. It’s F-bomb. You know that it’s going to cause a lot of consternation and possible damage.”
[via Yahoo!]
Some other additions to the dictionary are “brain cramp,” “bucket list,” “energy drink,” “life coach” and “aha moment,” all of which I find very appropriate to be added to our dictionary in this 21st century.
Do you think “f-bomb” and the other additions should have been added to such a prestigious dictionary? Why or why not?
guest
Every year when they add new words to the dictionary, people always ask if they should add them. Those words will be removed when people stop using them.