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This is Merriam-Webster’s largest-ever addition to its online dictionary, with entries and updates from all corners of the English language (and elsewhere!). We heart this.
“Online is a much faster medium than print, and we’re now able to adapt and add these entries in a way that makes sense,” Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski told BuzzFeed News. “Why should we hold back?”
The job of lexicographers (i.e., the people who make dictionaries) is revision — to watch language as it evolves and record it — so Merriam-Webster has done just that in a format that's much more forgiving than a giant printed dictionary, Sokolowski explained.
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Typically, Merriam-Webster.com adds fewer than 50 new words each year. And this year’s additions are significant not only because of the quantity of words, but also because they reflect “the breadth of English vocabulary and the speed with which we seek information,” according to a statement on Merriam-Webster’s website.
Karen Bleier / AFP / Getty Images
If you’re wondering how a word gets added to the dictionary, Sokolowski explained that lexicographers will track and observe words using many, many spreadsheets.
In a nutshell, a word must hit three benchmarks: frequent use, widespread use, and meaningful use. You can read more about that here.
A great example of this process is the addition of the words “prosopagnosia,” or “face blindness,” which was a term popularized by the neuroscientist and writer Oliver Sacks.
Sacks's use of the word gave it more frequent and widespread use. “He made it more personal and relatable — a human issue. … It went from the neurological journals to The New Yorker,” Sokolowski explained.
Merriam-Webster / Giphy / Via giphy.com
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