14 DAY TRIAL // Merriam-Webster Inc. released on Monday a list of more than 150 new words and definitions added to its Collegiate Dictionary with the 2014 update.
According to Mass Live, the list includes words like “selfie,” “hashtag,” “tweep,” and “steampunk,” showing the growing influence technology and social media have on people's lives.
“So many of these new words show the impact of online connectivity to our lives and livelihoods,” Editor-at-Large Peter Sokolowski said in a press release. “Tweep, selfie, and hashtag refer to the ways we communicate and share as individuals. Words like crowdfunding, gamification, and big data show that the Internet has changed business in profound ways.”
The fact that the list is heavily laden with terms that refer to the way we communicate on social media shows that services like Facebook and Twitter are changing the way we speak.
There are also new culinary terms like pho – defined as “a soup made of beef or chicken broth and rice noodles,” and turducken – “a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey.”
Another notable inclusion is the word “Yooper,” the moniker for native or longtime residents of the Lake Superior region known for a distinctive manner of speaking.
Merriam-Webster explained that the new words had been chosen based on their usage in the English language.