Covid-19, ASMR make dictionary list
Merriam-Webster, the United States’ leading language provider announced that it was adding more than 520 new words and definitions to the publisher’s website. These new words include “covid-19,” “second gentleman,” “long-hauler,” “flex,” “ASMR” and “sapiosexual.”
Before the pandemic, “long-hauler” was defined as a person or vehicle that travels long distances, but it now has an additional definition: “a person who experiences one or more longterm effects following initial improvement or recovery from a serious illness [such as covid-19].”
“ASMR,” or autonomous sensory meridian response, means “a pleasant tingling sensation that originates on the back of the scalp and often spreads to the neck and upper spine, that occurs in some people in response to a stimulus [such as a particular kind of sound or movement], and that tends to have a calming effect.”
“Second gentleman” has come into use because of Vice President Kamala Harris’ husband, Doug Emhoff. Merriam-Webster defines it as “the husband or male partner of a vice president or second in command of a country or jurisdiction.” As a verb, “flex” means to bend; informally, this word is defined as “to talk in a boastful or aggressive way.”
Emily Brewster, a senior editor from Merriam-Webster, says the lexicographers have a somewhat flexible criteria for adding a word or a revised definition of a word.
“In order for a word to be considered for entry in our dictionaries, we have to have evidence that shows this is really an established member of the language,” she says. “For that to be the case, we look to see that a word is widely used but in a wide variety of texts by a wide variety of people over an extensive period of time. … We want the use [of the word] to demonstrate that there’s an established meaning.”
Brewster notes that lexicographers don’t only look at published, edited texts; nor do lexicographers create new words. Rather, they observe and report on language.
The term “covid-19” was added in the dictionary in a record 34 days. Lexicographers usually measure a word’s addition to the dictionary in years, sometimes decades, according to the most recent episode of Merriam-Webster’s podcast, “Word Matters.” Before “covid-19,” the fastest a word had entered the dictionary was two years with the term “AIDS,” which was added in 1984, two years after its coinage.
“The level of use that [covid-19] was seeing and the heightened recognition that the term has really outweighs the amount of needing to see it in use for an extended period of time,” she says. “So in a case like this, the word was instantly everywhere. … Even at 34 days old, we knew this word is not going anywhere. You could cure the disease the next day, and it would still be appearing in books and articles.”
Brewster says lexicographers pay attention to how language changes, and how culture and social media influence the addition of new words.
“There is so much discourse happening online now in social media,” Brewster says. “And in some ways, I think it’s actually impossible to really draw a line and say that a word becomes established because it’s appearing in social media or a word goes from social media into broader use. It’s clear that the two are feeding each other.”
She noted the increase in written communication that hasn’t been vetted by editors and other gatekeepers: “Now you can read whatever [people] tweet, whatever they want to put on their blog. There’s so much informal communication available to be encountered.”
Although the coronavirus pandemic has played a huge role in our collective experience as a society, this new update from Merriam-Webster also included words relating to identity, gender and sexuality.
About “sapiosexual,” which refers to romantic attraction to highly intelligent people, Brewster says, “We’ve been monitoring words to do with gender and sexuality for a long time now, and this is in a long lineage of terms that have been added.”
“There is so much discourse happening online now in social media. And in some ways, I think it’s actually impossible to really draw a line and say that a word becomes established because it’s appearing in social media or a word goes from social media into broader use. It’s clear that the two are feeding each other.”
— Emily Brewster, senior editor at Merriam-Webster