‘antifragile,’ ‘petfluencer,’ ‘deadass’ among 313 new words added to Dictionary.com
In times of “hellscape,” we sometimes struggle to find words that describe how we feel, so we come up with one that best represents our thoughts and ideas.
Dictionary.com updated its list of words to perfectly adapt to the ever-changing world, documenting these changes in everything, everywhere, all at once.
The digital dictionary dropped 313 new words on their list that best describe and define whatever we want today, anchoring on the influence of pop culture. “Our lexicographers observe it all, documenting language change wherever it’s happening and defining the terms that help us to understand our times,” said Nick Norlen, senior editor of Dictionary.com.
This dictionary update does not only contain new words, it also included 130 new definitions and 1,140 revised definitions of existing words.
Some of these newly added words are "cakeage," which is derived from the existing word “corkage” and refers to a fee you'd have to pay when bringing a cake bought elsewhere into another restaurant.
Another is "nearlyweds," which is derived from the "newlyweds" and defined by Dictionary.com as "a person who lives with another in a life partnership, sometimes engaged with no planned wedding date, sometimes with no intention of even marrying."
They also added “antifragile,” and no, it does not refer to Le Sserafim’s single. This newly added term means being strong when exposed to stressors.
There's also "hellscape" which refers to a situation that is hopeless or unbearable.
In the Modern Problems category, they added “rage farming” which refers to “intentionally provoking” opponents in social media, mostly used in the political context. The word was first coined in 2022 by investigative reporter John Scott-Railton.
Additionally, they included “trauma dumping” which refers to inappropriately sharing negative thoughts/experiences with people who are “unprepared” for said interaction.
“Queerbaiting,” meanwhile, refers to a “marketing technique” to draw members of LGBTQ+ community without directly including “openly LGBTQ+ relationships, characters, or people.”
Here are some of the words that were derived from pop culture:
- Petfluencer (noun) - a person who gains a large social media following by posting images or videos of their pet; it can also be used to an animal featured in the said content
- Fan service (noun) – a material added to a work of fiction to appeal to the audience
- Climate fiction or cli-fi (noun) - fictional or realist works having environmental concerns as the major theme
- Talmbout (verb) - slang way of saying, “talking about”
- Deadass (adverb) - slang term for sincerely or genuinely
- Woke (adjective) - of or relating to liberal progressive orthodoxy, promoting ideologies that welcome the minorities
- Ecofacism (noun) - a right-wing ideology that blames environmental harm mainly on poorer nations and marginalized groups
The dictionary also added terms and their definitions used in the gaming community, such as “build,” “buff,” "spec," and “healer” among others.