Merriam-Webster has announced a major update for the 12th edition of their “Collegiate” dictionary. They are adding more than 5,000 terms, including these:
Beast mode: Which Merriam-Webster defines as,”An extremely aggressive or energetic style or manner that someone adopts temporarily to overpower an opponent in a fight or competition.”
Dad bod: “A physique regarded as typical of an average father, especially one that is slightly overweight and not extremely muscular.”
Dumbphone: “A cellphone that does not include advanced software features, such as email or an internet browser typically found on smartphones.”
Farm-to-table: “Involving or advocating the direct sale and distribution of food from its point of origin to customers.”
Hard pass: “A firm refusal or rejection of something, such as an offer.”
Love language: “A person’s characteristic means of showing love or care for another.”
Petrichor: “A distinctive, earthy, usually pleasant odor that is associated with rainfall, especially when following a warm, dry period.”
Rizz: “Romantic appeal or charm.”
Side-eye: “A sidelong glance or gaze, especially when expressing scorn, suspicion, disapproval or veiled curiosity.”
Teraflop: “A unit of measure for the calculating speed of a computer equal to one trillion floating-point operations per second.” (There are around 4,990 more, but it’s a Friday, so we’ll leave it at that for now.)
If some of these terms seem like they’ve already been around for a while, it’s because the last update to the hard copy of the Collegiate dictionary was 22 years ago. This new edition will be released on November 18th. (All of the added words were already available on Merriam-Webster.com.)
(AP News)
