by Addison Maley
Staff Writer
The following story was written by a student on the staff of The Jaguar Times as part of Hilliard Bradley High School’s Journalism Production course.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary added hundreds of new words throughout 2022, from slang to medical terminology.
According to the Global Language monitor, new words are generated approximately every 98 minutes, but only around 1000 are added to the English dictionary each year. Each potential word goes through a vetting process, but what is that process composed of?
The most important consideration when adding a word to the dictionary is how widespread its use is. In the digital age, online use is just as important as spoken. Several popular social media centered words were added this year, including “cringe,” “greenwashing,” and “virtue signaling.”
While these words may not be spoken frequently, they are important to the online English lexicon. According to Merriam-Webster, as long as a word’s meaning is agreed upon and its use is widespread, it is eligible to be added into the dictionary. This includes internet slang, even if it is not spoken or written elsewhere.
These terms make sense, but they result in some amusing additions. In 2020, the video game “Among Us” popularized the term “sus,” short for “suspicious.” Though it started as simple shorthand, it quickly became widespread, and was added to the dictionary in Sept. 2023. Lucy Cotter (11) thinks regardless of the amusing nature of the words, it’s important for them to be added, especially considering she “gets a lot of [her] vocabulary from the internet.” This is becoming increasingly common among young people as social media spreads new slang, abbreviations and shorthands.
While some people acknowledge the importance of slang, others question whether it’s essential to the dictionary. Noha Abu (11) points out, “some words are in Urban Dictionary territory,” a crowdsourced online dictionary specifically for slang. She adds “it lowers the value of the dictionary by adding words like ‘goblin mode’ and ‘sus’.” Biology teacher Mrs. Baker agrees with this point, saying “slang shouldn’t be included in the dictionary,” because of the ambiguity of the words, citing discrepancies in their part-of-speech classification. While Merriam-Webster has to be precise with their classification of words and definitions, Urban Dictionary has more flexibility with ambiguous terms.
Bradley Media Specialist Mrs. Thomas has a more accepting view of new words. Though she feels “they don’t hold very much literary merit… the reality is we are in a digital age.” Moving forward, she feels it’s important to come up with more structured guidelines for slang and other online-words before they are added.
Despite these concerns, some people simply find the newfound legitimacy humorous. Now that previously ‘joke’ words have become official, some are ramping up their usage of them. Dani Peck (11) shares, “yeet is her favorite new word,” meaning to forcefully throw or express excitement. She adds “you can find [her] ‘yeeting’ in the cafeteria,” as she tosses her trash into the garbage can. While Merriam-Webster claims these words were already widespread, their stamp of approval popularizes them even more.
As language expands, our written documentation of it must follow suit. Though the dictionary does not determine which words are real, it is an important indicator of the direction of the English language. Judging by 2022’s edition, it looks to be moving deeper into the digital sphere.