If you’re a logophile then you probably love this time of the year when the Oxford English Dictionary announces its latest additions to the most respected dictionary on the planet. I say probably because many logophiles tend to take themselves too seriously, and often hate when the OED adds words that are overly colloquial to the dictionary. Love them or hate them, the words below are now REAL in every sense of the world. Once they enter the Oxford English Dictionary these words are 100% legitimate and regardless of what your cheese eater English teacher has to say these are fine to use in both everyday conversations and in essays.
via TIME.com:
bracketology (n.): the activity of predicting the participating teams in a tournament (typically the NCAA basketball tournament) and the winners of the competition’s stages, as depicted in a diagram representing the sequence of matches.
cheese eater (n.): a person who eats cheese; a person who appreciates or routinely consumes cheese.
clicktivism (n.): the practice of signaling support for a political or social cause by means of the Internet, through social media, online petitions, etc., rather than by more substantive involvement.
freemium (n.): a business model, especially on the Internet, whereby basic services are provided free of charge while more advanced features must be paid for.
fuhgeddaboudit (int.): in representations of regional speech (associated especially with New York and New Jersey): “forget about it”; used to indicate that a suggested scenario is unlikely or undesirable.
’Merica (n.): America. Note: Originally and chiefly in representations of nonstandard speech. Now frequently also in ironic or self-conscious use, emphasizing emblematic or stereotypical qualities of American traditions, institutions and national ideals.
moobs (n.): unusually prominent breasts on a man, typically as a result of excess pectoral fat.
non-apology (n.): a statement that takes the form of an apology but does not acknowledge responsibility or express regret for what has caused offence or upset; an insincere or unconvincing apology.
swirlie (n.): an act of forcibly immersing a person’s head in the bowl of a toilet as it is flushed, typically as a practical joke.
YOLO (int.): “You only live once”; used to express the view that one should make the most of the present moment without worrying about the future (often as a rationale for impulsive or reckless behavior).
I don’t know about your bros but I’m pretty stoked to see that ‘swirlie’ and ‘moobs’ are finally official. These are words most guys have been using since Middle School and it was only a matter of time before the brilliant minds at the OED officially recognized these words. I do think it’s a little pointless to include YOLO this year as that acronym/word is nearly extinct, I haven’t heard anyone say that in months.
What I find most interesting here is that people (myself included) who traditionally wrote ‘Merica as ‘Murica’ are now grammatically wrong. Before it was word smithing, we were making up our own word for the purposes of expressing everyday speech, but now that ‘Merica is in the dictionary we can no longer choose to spell it as ‘Murica without violating the dictionary.
…You can find a list of all 500 words added to the Oxford English Dictionary in their blog post here…