You can now officially describe your Saturday nights as "binge-watching" extravaganzas, discuss the merits of "ghosting," refer to our leaders as "SCOTUS" and "FLOTUS," and devour a "macaron" as your midday treat: Merriam-Webster has just added the terms to the dictionary.
Legitimating some of the already most commonly used expressions across the country, Merriam-Webster has just revealed the 1,000 new words that it has added to the English language.
"This is a significant addition to our online dictionary, reflecting the breadth of English vocabulary and the speed with which we seek information," reads the official statement.
From terms relating to medicine (urgent care, EpiPen) to ones regarding cooking and food (EVOO, arancini), to political terms (town hall, truther) and words reflecting Americans' devotion to all things technological (photobomb, humblebrags, NSFW listicles), the vocabulary mimics the changes that our language has gone through in the shifting cultural and political era we're living in.
"These are words that have demonstrated frequent and increasing use in a variety of sources, and are therefore likely to be encountered by a reader—and should be in the dictionary," continues the statement.
Below are some of the funniest tweets regarding the new words:
'Ginger' as a synonym for 'redhead' is now in the dictionary. https://t.co/Ah67FhREZY pic.twitter.com/dVefwkrmeU
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) February 7, 2017
Thanks to @MerriamWebster adding "binge-watch," your parents will now understand that "Kimmy Schmidt" bender https://t.co/vnAjDwmml8 pic.twitter.com/HETJWf6bdk
— amNewYork (@amNewYork) February 7, 2017
.@MerriamWebster just added 30 new food words to the dictionary (sorry, kalette—you didn't make the cut): https://t.co/xBx4I38SPA pic.twitter.com/Vp0FrZWPlK
— Food52 (@Food52) February 7, 2017
.@MerriamWebster added 1,000 new words/phrases, including FLOTUS, binge-watch, ghost someone, side-eye, face-palm https://t.co/4hdbnBcojL pic.twitter.com/vsJkhQfoaa
— Hollywood Reporter (@THR) February 7, 2017
'Amour fou' is now in the dictionary. Just in time for Valentine's Day! https://t.co/WEKcfFxCJ6 pic.twitter.com/PzhpH4lDJ1
— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) February 7, 2017