New Words Added to the Dictionary Include SARS

Posted on October 6, 2005

It's an exciting day for writers: the new edition of Merriam-Webster's dictionary is out. Ok, maybe exciting is too strong a word, but still we always like to see what new words have been added to the lexicon since last year. This year's entires include brain freeze, bikini wax and chick flick (we dare you to use all three terms in the same sentence in your next novel).

Those terms are joined by 15 other new entries that make up the 1,664 pages of the newly published book. So if you're not interested in movies meant to appeal to women, discreet hair removal procedures or running the risk of a sudden shooting pain in the head caused by very cold food, maybe there's another endeavor to catch your fancy.

Try "steganography," the "art or practice of concealing a message, image, or file within another message, image, or file." That may not be the latest craze, but it's an activity that caught the attention of Merriam-Webster's lexicographers.

"We have editors who spend a part of each day reading magazines and newspapers, looking for evidence of how words are being more commonly used," said John Morse, Merriam-Webster's president and publisher. "We're looking for words that show up in the contexts that the average adult might encounter."

The new words reflect changes and developments in American society. You could try your hand at being a "cybrarian" (a person who finds, collects, and manages information available on the Internet,) or as a "hospitalist" ("a physician who specializes in treating hospitalized patients of other physicians in order to minimize the number of hospital visits by other physicians.")

It usually takes about 10 years for a new term to make it into the dictionary. But, on a sad note, SARS (the acronymn for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) made it in because of the urgency of the term. On a brighter note, we had already heard of steganography because we were reading The Rule of Four.

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