A mash-up list of new words has been added to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for 2012—providing a revealing look at American culture, according to the company.
“Some of the new words this year provide colorful images,” Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster editor-at-large, said in a statement.
“Terms like ‘man cave’, ‘underwater’ (when used to describe mortgages), ‘earworm’, and ‘bucket list’ paint vivid pictures in your mind,” he said. “They show that English-speakers can be very creative as they describe the world around them.”
Words from technology to pop culture and cutting-edge science, and words elevated by foodies, are just a few of the latest additions to the dictionary.
These words include: aha moment bucket list cloud computing copernicium earworm energy drink f-bomb game changer gassed gastropub man cave mash-up sexting systematic risk underwater
Merriam-Webster’s editors constantly monitor the evolving language and add new terms to the dictionary when those words become widely-used across a variety of publications.
[via Merriam-Webster]