Newly added words to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Betty — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 21:18:00 GMT

Why not see if new words added to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary aren't new to you? A list of some of the more notable words and the year they were first used in an English-language publication might get you started. I am pleased that I actually blogged about dwarf planets. My first experience with edamame came when my son mentioned that he liked it a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't even sure what it was. And what's up with fanboy? How come it took it 89 years to make it into the dictionary? The very idea!

A sampling of the added words:

Dwarf planet (1993): celestial body that orbits the sun and has a spherical shape, but is too small to disturb other objects from its orbit.

Edamame (1951): immature green soybeans, usually in the pod.

Fanboy (1919): boy who is an enthusiastic devotee, such as of comics or movies.

Students might enjoy using words from the list to write paragraphs like this one:

Some malware locked me out of my webinar, so I headed down to the infinity pool to eat some edamame, fresh from the pod. A waitress came by with a glass of soju…or was it prosecco?

I'm sure a lot of spell checkers will go crazy in the process.:) You should see the red marks on my screen right now.

It might also be a great back to school activity to give students a list of some of the newly added words and have them write their own definitions before revealing the actual meanings of the words.

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Newly added words to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary