New additions like ‘Quiddich’ in Oxford dictionary

Quiddich, a fantasy sport played in J.K. Rowling’s magical Harry Potter franchise, along with words like ‘cli-fi’ and ‘showmance’ are among over 40 new additions in the latest update of the Oxford Dictionary.

The non-magical iteration of Quiddich has been around for a little over 10 years, originating at Middlebury College in Vermont, and is played with broomsticks held between the legs.

Also escaping the realms of fiction to join the real world is the word cromulent—meaning “acceptable or adequate”— which was first used over 20 years ago in ‘The Simpsons’ as a descriptor of the word ‘embiggen’ used in an engraving on a statue of the town founder.

Embiggen is another addition from the latest update. Research shows it was used as far back as the late 19th century. The word did not come into common usage until its appearance in ‘The Simpsons.’

Similarly ‘showmance’ refers to a romantic relationship between co-stars, but particularly one contrived for the sake of publicity.

Another new word ‘Mary Sue’ refers to “a type of female character who is depicted as unrealistically lacking in flaws or weaknesses”, and was used originally in fan fiction before spreading out to more general usage.

‘Cli-fi’ refers to the genre of fiction exploring issues around climate change and global warming, and is modelled after its hypernym sci-fi.

The growth of concerns about the environment have given rise to words like ‘agroecology’ to describe the ‘application of ecological principles to agricultural systems.