Grammarians and bookworms can geek out over more than 1,000 new entries to the Merriam-Websterâs online dictionary, including the words photobomb, face-palm and side-eye.
âGeek outâ is in there too, along with truther, yowza, humblebrag and snollygoster -- a nearly forgotten term for a âshrewd, unprincipled personâ that has seen a revival in U.S. and U.K. political mud-slinging.
Snollygoster is making a rare return to the dictionary. Merriam-Webster dropped the word back in 2003 because it had become nearly obsolete, but once conservative U.S. TV host Bill OâReilly began using it frequently, online searches for snollygoster increased.
The word is also apparently making a comeback in the U.K., where an MP recently used it to insult foreign secretary Boris Johnson.
Other political terms now listed by Merriam-Webster include town hall, truther (a person who believes the real truth about something is being covered up in a conspiracy), as well as POTUS and FLOTUS â the acronyms for President of the United States and First Lady of the United States.
Merriam-Webster editors say their 1,000 additions reflect new slang, recent advances in science and technology, English-speakersâ borrowings from other languages, âand everything in between.â
âBecause there is no space limitation online, we are allowed to expand as much as we can,â Peter Sokolowski, a U.S.-based editor-at-large for Merriam Webster, told ŰÎŰ´ŤĂ˝ Channel on Tuesday.
The adjective Seussian refers to things suggestive of Dr. Seussâ beloved stories and images. A supercentenarian is someone 110 years or older. âWeak sauceâ can be used to trash-talk an opponent at a hockey game, or discuss the current global political climate.
Then there are words with very specific meanings, such as bokeh, which you might never use in your life.
Even ghosting, that awful and increasingly common practice of ending a relationship by abruptly cutting off all contact, is now a verb in the dictionary.
Getting a new word published in the dictionary can take years, Sokolowski said. The process begins when a word is noticed, and Merriam-Webster editors begin to collect citations â that is, published examples of the word.
âAnd once we get an accumulation of those citations over time⌠we see kind of an increasing frequency and increasing breadth of use and then we recognize itâs time that this word goes into the dictionary when it is broadly used and expected to be understood by the public. For example, if itâs used in big newspapers or online websites.â
A growing trend in the English language, Sokolowski says, is how people are finding new ways to describe relationships with technology.
âThings like abandonware or net neutrality or botnet or ⌠binge-watch or photobomb. These are what we do with the technology that we have, because weâve already got names for the internet and for cellphones and other things,â he said.
We now enter 'ghost' as a verb, and made us this GIF to celebrate the occasion.
â Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster)
The full list of new online entries and the reasons behind Merriam-Websterâs choices can be found on the If thereâs a word you canât find, donât worry. The editors say theyâre already working on the next batch of new entries.