The Buckingham

Today the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary expands it’s vocabulary to some out of the ordinary words. “F-bomb” along with sexting, flexitarian, obseogenic, energy drink, and life coach. The Merriam-Webster group picks about 100 additions annually to keep the very popular dictionary more up to date.

According to associate editor for Merriam-Webster, Kory Stamper, the phrase F-bomb has been around longer then most of us may know. The Massachusetts group traced back the phrase to 1988 in a story around the deceased New York Met, Gary Carter.

Stamper said, “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.”

Stamper also states that this dictionary business is definitely not a race. Merriam-Webster dictionary is not the first to include F-bomb, many online dictionaries already have that word listed.

Every year the book gets slightly updated but its not until about a decade that the book gets a good revision from front to back. Other words added to the list this year, Stephen King’s earworm, man cave, brain cramp, and bucket list. Earworm is not new to the dictionary though, just a new definition was added.

Last year’s leading word was “tweet”. But according to Stamper, “This is a list of really descriptive and evocative, fun words. Some years, not so fun. Some years it’s a lot of science words. Some years it’s a lot of words around really heavy topics.”

Words that have new meanings are also included this year because of the heavy recession the world has been facing. Along those word are “systemic risk” and “underwater” — meaning you own more on your mortgage than your property is actually worth.

Two words have been added that have much to do with a person’s way of eating. Flexitarian, meaning, “one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish.” Also, obesogenic meaning, “promoting excessive weight gain: producing obesity..”
John Morse, president of the leading dictionary Merriam-Webster wouldn’t release the full list of new words because of the competitors. “Let them find their own new words,” Morse joked. Morse gave a Top 25 of the new entries to be add: craft beer, e-reader, game changer, tipping point, shovel-ready, and geocaching.