The term “F-bomb” first surfaced in newspapers more than 20 years ago but only landed in the mainstream Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary on Tuesday, along with sexting, flexitarian, obesogenic, energy drink and life coach.
In all, the company picks about 100 additions for the 114-year-old dictionary’s annual update, gathering evidence of usage over several years in everything from media to the labels of beer bottles and frozen food.
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Many online dictionary and reference sites already list F-bomb and other entries Merriam-Webster is only now putting into print. A competitor, Oxford University Press, has F-bomb under consideration for a future update of its New Oxford American Dictionary but beat Merriam-Webster to print on a couple of other newcomers: mash-up, added to the Oxford book in 2005, and cloud computing, included in 2010.
Here are Some Other New Entries:
Merriam-Webster leads the dictionary market, said John Morse, president of the privately held company who wouldn’t release sales figures. He also wouldn’t release a full list of new entries, in part to put off competitors.
“Let them find their own new words,” he joked. “It’s not a cutthroat business but we like to say it’s a bare knuckles business.” Morse did acknowledge: “It’s harder for some paper dictionaries to stay in business in the era of online dictionaries.”
More New Entries to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary:
Craft beer, e-reader, game changer, a new definition for “gassed” as slang for drained of energy, gastropub, geocaching, shovel-ready (a construction site ready for work) and tipping point.
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