New Words Added To Dictionary May Surprise You

The pod person used his WiFi at hyperspeed to listen to some tuneage, complain about plumber’s crack, saw a gay-friendly drama queen and – bada-bing – wound up with some bling.

O.K. that’s not the most literate or sensible sentence you’ll ever read.

But for the first time, every word in it appears in what’s acknowledged to be the world’s most prestigious language guide.

The editors at the Oxford English Dictionary spend untold hours deciding which precious bon mots belong in their coveted edition, and this year, they’ve added hundreds of new words to the list of what’s officially correct English.

The choices involve picking items that regularly appear in either print, on TV, over the Internet or have simply been around long enough to attain the status of common usage.

Among this year’s additions: “bada-bing”, the infamous phrase popularized by the Sopranos, which the editors note means “suggesting something happening suddenly, emphatically, or easily and predictably.”

Not surprisingly, avian flu is there. And so is the influence of computers. Photoshop is in, along with  telemeeting and gif.  And yes, they’ve finally included that scourge of the repair industry, plumber’s crack.

There are also words you’d likely suspect have been there for years but never made it, like belly-up, carpet bombing, drive-by, anti-proliferation and wonky.

And then there are the truly obscure, like “obesogenic” (pertaining to or tending to cause obesity); “diplobiontic”, (which refers to the life cycle of a cell and its reproduction); “bahookie”, (a Scottish term that refers to your backside); “conchiglie”, (a shell shaped pasta); and “terroir” (which isn’t about Osama bin Laden but is a French term relating to wine and vineyards).

How do they choose which words make it and which don’t?  “Our editors are currently going through the entire alphabet bit by bit, writing new entries and revising existing ones in order to stay current,” editor Jesse Sheidlower explains in a statement. “It’s a massive job and will take years, if not decades, to complete- at which point we’ll start over again.”

It’s the perfect pastime for looky-loos who aren’t self-selective videogenic fancy pants.

And yes, all those famous last words are now in there, too.

Here’s the alphabetized list of some of the added words this year.

aerobicize, v.
aerobicized, adj.
amatriciana, n.
anti-proliferation, adj.
arrabbiata, n.
arthrobranch, n.
arthrobranchia, n.
awardee, n.

bada-bing, int.
bahookie, n.
bail, v.5
beer pong, n.
beezer, adj.
belly-up, adv.
-biont, comb. form
bippy, n.
bling, n. and adj.
bosting, adj.
bracero, n.
breakout, adj.
broomball, n.

cabbaged, adj.3
carpet bombing, n.
celebutante, n.
Central Casting, n. and adj.
check-in, adj. and n.
chucklesome, adj.
churro, n.
close season, n.
conchiglie, n.
cross-train, v.
cross-trainer, n.
cross-training, n.
crostini, n.
cruciverbalist, n.
cube, n.3
cultigen, n.
cypherpunk, n.

dancey, adj.
dead zone, n.
deboard, v.
deboarding, n.
de-pants, v.
diplobiontic, adj.
Disneyfication, n.
Disneyfied, adj.
Disneyfy, v.
Dopp kit, n.
Dorothy Dix, n.
drive-by, n. and adj.

Emily’s List, n.

facialist, n.
fancy-pants, adj. and n.
Five-O, n.
foofaraw, adj. and n.
Freddie Mac, n.

gapper, n.
garnacha, n.
gay-friendly, adj.
GIF, n.
Ginnie Mae, n.
goût de terroir, n.
grind house, n.
gross-out, n. and adj.
gueuze, n.

haplobiont, n.
haplobiontic, adj.
haplodiploid, adj.
hard-ass, n. and adj.
hard-assed, adj.
hardscape, n.
hardscaping, n.
heightism, n.
heightist, adj.
hominin, n. and adj.
hoolie, n.
hooptie, n.
hydrospeed, n.
hypernym, n.
hypernymy, n.

ill-deserved, adj.
Islamophobia, n.

Jack, n.11

key worker, n.
kir royale, n.

lamer, n.
langer, n.
lebkuchen, n.
limoncello, n.
liposculpture, n.
locksmithing, n.
logoed, adj.
Lollywood, n.
looky-loo, n.
low-rent, adj.

mesotherapy, n.
microbrowser, n.
mosey, n.
musical soirée, n.

obesogenic, adj.
off-label, adj. and adv.
offshore, v.
offshoring, n.

parthenote, n.
Photoshop, v.

radge, adj. and n.2
radgie, adj.
rapini, n.
reperfusion, n.
retronym, n.
riffage, n.
run-and-gun, adj. and n.

Sallie Mae, n.
salsero, n.
scooch, v.
scouch, v.
scrote, n.
self-harm, n.
self-harming, n.
self-harming, adj.
self-select, adj.
self-select, v.
self-selecting, adj.
Skilsaw, n.
sofrito, n.
spiedie, n.
supermini, n.1

telemeeting, n.
terroir, adj.
therapize, v.
treeware, n.
tuneage, n.
twonk, n.

videogenic, adj.
viewshed, n.
vox, n.2

walled garden, n.
Wi-Fi, n. (and adj.)
womyn, n.
wonky, adj.2

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