Language is fluid, and ever changing and that’s why the team at Oxford add and change dictionary entries every single year. Each year they examine the language used in the media, essays and literature, deciding which words are in and which words are out.
The 2018 Oxford English Dictionary update is in, and this year there are 1,100 new entries, phrases and senses. Here are the ones we think you might be most surprised at.
Mainsplain (vb)
I don’t think there’s a day gone by for the last year that I haven’t heard this word I some context. The first instance of the word came in 2008, and now you’ll find it in the dictionary too.
Hangry (adj)
Hangry is another word that’s been getting thrown about online for quite a while now but you might be surprised to know the earliest recorded usage is 1956! A portmanteau of hungry and angry, it’s recently been embraced by the public and is now in the OED.
Me Time (noun)
We’ve heard a lot of talk about self care in this modern world and now ‘me time’ has made it into the dictionary. It’s been about since about 1980, which doesn’t surprise me as my mother used to say it when I was a child.
Snowflake (noun)
While the OED traces ‘snowflake’ back to a positive meaning from the idea that all snowflakes are unique, Chuck Palahniuk took it to a whole new meaning in Fight Club in the 1990s with the quote ‘You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else, and we are all part of the same compost pile.’ It didn’t enter popular language immediately but has become very popular in the last year or so.
These are just a handful of the changes to the OED this year, you can see them all here. What do you make of this year’s additions?
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