SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — TBH, a dad bod is not always appealing. Amirite?
Those are three of the 455 new words Merriam-Webster added to its dictionary for October, the company said in a news release.
“Just as the language never stops evolving, the dictionary never stops expanding,” the Springfield, Massachusetts-based company said in its release. “New terms and new uses for existing terms are the constant in a living language, and our latest list brings together both new and likely familiar words that have shown extensive and established use.”
So, here’s a primer of new words:
TBH: To be honest. “TBH” is frequently used in social media and text messaging, Merriam-Webster said.
Dad bod: “A physique regarded as typical of an average father; especially: one that is slightly overweight and not extremely muscular.”
Amirite: Am I right? “Slang used in writing for ‘am I right’ to represent or imitate the use of this phrase as a tag question in informal speech.”
Other new words include “fluffernutter,” a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow crème between two slices of white sandwich bread; Sen. Mitt Romney gave the phrase some notoriety in 2013 when he celebrated his 66th birthday with one, CNN reported.
Other new words are “FTW,” for the win; “copypasta,” data, such as a block of text, that has been copied and spread widely online; and “deplatform,” to remove and ban a user from a digital platform, according to Merriam-Webster.
“The quick and informal nature of messaging, texting, and tweeting has contributed to a vocabulary newly rich in efficient and abbreviated expression,” Merriam-Webster said on its website.
Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s editor-at-large, told Today that there must be written proof of a word’s longevity.
“If a word is used frequently in publications such as The New York Times or The Atlantic, then it goes into the dictionary,” Sokolowski said. “We need to see it appear in carefully edited prose over a period of time -- and not just in memes and on social media.”
In making its announcement, Merriam-Webster grouped the new words into categories, like online culture and communications, pop culture, medicine, the coronavirus, tech and science, food, medicine and politics, CNN reported.
The word “because” was tweaked to include a new definition, CBS News reported. “This preposition use of ‘because’ is versatile,” Merriam-Webster said. “It can be used, for example, to avoid delving into the overly technical or to dismiss explanation altogether.”
Words from the pandemic that were added include “super-spreader,” “long COVID” “breakthrough medical” and “vaccine passport,” Merriam-Webster said.
“Slang dictionaries are great and they serve an important function,” Sokolowski told People. “But Merriam-Webster has to be more researched. We need to see so much evidence of a word’s use and so by the time it’s entered, it might feel a little stale.”
He’s right, TBH. Language marches on.
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