{"id":8253,"date":"2021-11-04T14:09:56","date_gmt":"2021-11-04T18:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/?p=8253"},"modified":"2021-11-04T14:09:56","modified_gmt":"2021-11-04T18:09:56","slug":"rewriting-the-english-dictionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/rewriting-the-english-dictionary\/","title":{"rendered":"Rewriting the English Dictionary"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_8254\" style=\"width: 1034px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-8254\" class=\"size-large wp-image-8254\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-8254\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/pdpics-44804\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=390055\">PDPics<\/a>\u00a0from\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=390055\">Pixabay<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>As you probably know, every year new words are added to English dictionaries. English is, after all, an ever-evolving language. Although, the editors of all the various dictionaries seldom agree on what words merit consideration and inclusion. <em>The Oxford English Dictionary<\/em> (OED) for 2021, for instance, added the hyphenated word <strong><em>haggis-headed<\/em><\/strong>, which describes someone who \u201cacts in a foolish manner\u201d. As much as I like the word, it\u2019s unlikely to make its way into an American English dictionary, such as <em>Merriam-Webster<\/em>, anytime soon. Similarly, the OED also added the uniquely British slang word <strong><em>gyaff<\/em><\/strong>, which means \u201cto gossip or chatter idly\u201d. That word is completely unknown in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>But, before we single out our cousins from across the pond for adding silly words, let\u2019s not create a <strong><em>faff<\/em><\/strong> without taking a look at some of the words added this year by Merriam-Webster. (Faff, by the way, is a British slang word meaning \u201ca fuss or bother\u201d and <u>is<\/u> in the <em>Merriam-Webster Dictionary<\/em>.)<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>amirite<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This slang word which is short for \u201cam I right?\u201d is used as a tag question in informal speech. This owes its popularity to TV star and comedian Jerry Seinfeld who frequently used it on his eponymous comedy series. Adding this to the dictionary makes you wonder what the English language is coming to, amirite?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>hard pass<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This compound term, and there are a lot of them this year, means &#8220;to make a firm refusal or rejection of something&#8221;. \u201cThe money I was being offered to take a new job couldn\u2019t make up for the unsafe working conditions, so I took a hard pass.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>COVID Related Words<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>breakthrough<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Not a new word, of course, but one with a new meaning. Today, a breakthrough is a noun meaning \u201can infection in someone who has been vaccinated against the infection.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>super-spreader<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>An occasion, event, or location at which many people contract a communicable disease.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>vaccine passport<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Official proof documenting that an individual has been vaccinated against a disease.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Food Related Words<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>fluffernutter<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A fluffernutter is a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow cr\u00e8me on white bread. It is sweet, soft, sticky, and really tasty. It\u2019s also been around for over 100 years and suddenly only now entering the dictionary. Crazy, amirite?<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>air fryer<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is an electrical appliance that uses high-speed convection fans to rapidly fry certain foods without using much oil.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>ghost kitchen<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A ghost kitchen is a professional, commercial kitchen where food is prepared, but delivered and served at another location. This is another COVID-related entry. When the pandemic shut restaurants down they continued to survive by cooking for take-out service.<strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Politics<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>whataboutism<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This word refers to the practice of deflecting blame or criticism by citing someone or something else as being worse. \u201cYes, I lied on my resume, but how does that compare to the charges of perjury leveled against my opponent just five years ago?\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>astroturf<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Astroturf, capitalized, is a commercial name for artificial lawns and other green spaces. Used without capitalization, astroturf is a clever form of making a political cause seem local when it is actually funded by powerful and large donor groups. \u201cThe campaign to ban certain books from the local library is actually an astroturf cause paid for by a national group located in Washington, DC.\u201d<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>cancel culture<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This is the practice of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure on individuals who have done something that offends many people.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<h4><strong>deplatform<\/strong><\/h4>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Related to cancel culture, to deplatform someone is to remove that person from a social network or from some other method of expressing their opinions to the masses.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>BIPOC<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Black and Indigenous People of Color. \u201cThese new rules will make it very hard to discriminate against our BIPOC neighbors in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There are 455 new words added to the <em>Merriam-Webster Dictionary<\/em> this year, and I certainly can\u2019t list them all here. Rest assured, though, there will be more to come in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"233\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021-350x233.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021-350x233.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/31\/2021\/11\/New-Words-2021.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>As you probably know, every year new words are added to English dictionaries. English is, after all, an ever-evolving language. Although, the editors of all the various dictionaries seldom agree on what words merit consideration and inclusion. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for 2021, for instance, added the hyphenated word haggis-headed, which describes someone who&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/rewriting-the-english-dictionary\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":138,"featured_media":8254,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[135139,135370,179],"tags":[4067,218980,411101,13],"class_list":["post-8253","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english-language","category-english-vocabulary","category-news","tag-american-english","tag-merriam-webster-dictionary","tag-oxford-english-dictionary","tag-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/138"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8255,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8253\/revisions\/8255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}