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Did you know that the first Oxford English Dictionary of 10 volumes took 70 years to complete (1878-1928)? And the second updated edition, published by the Oxford University Press in 1989, doubled to 20 volumes? Well, work on the third edition is underway.
I stumbled upon a list of “new words and expressions” and just spent some time this weekend researching and summarizing their meanings from various online dictionaries. Maybe you have heard a few. Maybe you have used a few. If nothing else, you might find some of these “new words” added to the largest English dictionary in the world helpful in your next game of Scrabble:
- flash mob: a group of people who assemble in a public place to perform some type of act for a short time to entertain or artistically express themselves and then quickly disperse
- fracking: a means of extracting natural gas during drilling for a well
- Geekery: describes the products of the nerds and geeks’ subculture
- imbongi: a composer and orator of poems in traditional African society who praises a chief or other figurehead
- interoperability: the ability for separate entities (e.g., devices, software programs, agents/users, institutions) to function usefully with each other inside that context for some set of purposes
- jolly hockey sticks: a high social class female who is enthusiastic in a way that annoys most people
- kombucha: a food supplement prepared from yeast and bacteria that is added to tea for its supposed health benefits
- live blog: to write/maintain a blog about an event as the event is happening
- mani-pedi: a beauty treatment that includes both a manicure and a pedicure
- Mephistophelian: wicked and fiendish
- microbiome: the microorganisms in a particular environment including the body or a part of the body
- mochaccino: a fine-quality coffee often with chocolate added
- mouseover: moving your mouse over something on a computer screen to have a text or image pop up
- parasomnia: a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal or unusual behavior of the nervous system
- post-racial: when discussions around race and racism are deemed no longer relevant to current social dynamics
- red velvet: a buttermilk cake with red food coloring
- Russell Group: 24 leading UK universities committed to maintaining the very best research, an outstanding teaching and learning experience, and unrivalled links with business and the private sector
- salat: the ritual prayer of the Muslims, performed five times daily
- schlumpy: looking like a schlump; slow and sloppy
- showrunner: the person who is responsible for the day-to-day operation of a television show
- smackhead: a heroin druggie
- trixie: slang term referring to young, urban white women typically single in their late 20s-early 30s of the Chicago, Illinois, area.
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- veepstakes: the process occurring every four years when candidates for the President of the US select a running mate and if the ticket wins, the running mate becomes the Vice-President
- watch fob: a short ribbon or chain attached to a watch that hangs out of the pocket in which the watch is kept
- tweet: a posting made on the social networking service Twitter
Are there any new words or expressions that you have encountered?
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