New Words In English Language

This year sees a slew of  “cray” words being entered into the Oxford English Dictionary. You may have heard or read them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Oxford University Press

The Oxford University Press has one of the largest language research programmes in the world. Their most important resources are the Oxford English Corpus and the Reading Programme.  Their Corpus consists of large documents sourced from the World Wide Web, while the Reading Programme is electronic and gathers information from a collection of sentences, song lyrics, extracts taken from a variety of literary fiction and non-fiction and also scientific journals.

International Community

It is held together by the contribution of an international network of readers who sift through these sources on the lookout for new words, their meanings and other language changes. The Reader research is all put forward for the Oxford English Dictionary.

New Word Sources

Many words that have made frequent contribution to the OED come from online communication, i.e. social media and internet slang, pop culture, film and literature, and even new ones typically churned out by tech-savvy reviewers. If there is sufficient evidence to back up a word’s prolonged usage [a new word used by more than one writer] then the Readers at OED investigate to give a clear definition and origin of this word. Once a word has been selected, it becomes a candidate for inclusion into the OED.

It’s all part of keeping the English language modern and alive.

We have always been interested in new words in the Oxford English Dictionary, as we’ve used a number of them in our blogs and social media posts.

We’ve put together the latest collection of new words that found a home in the OED:

New Word	Definition	New Word	Definition
acquihire	the instance of hiring a company to acquire the skills & expertise of its staff	hot mess	a person or thing that is spectacularly unsuccessful or disordered
adorbs	arousing great delight; cute & adorable	hot mic	a microphone that is turned on, in particular, one that amplifies or broadcasts a spoken remark that was intended to be private
air punch	the act of thrusting one’s fist into the air, typically as a gesture of victory	humblebrag	an ostensibly modest or self-deprecating statement whose actual purpose is to draw attention to something of which one is proud
amazeballs	impressive; extremely good or amazing	hyperconnected	characterized by the widespread or habitual use of devices that have Internet connectivity
anti-vax	opposed to vaccination e.g. ‘anti-vax parents’	ICYMI	abbreviation: In case you missed it (used in electronic communication to draw attention to something noteworthy)
baller	extremely good, impressive or excellent	in silico	(of scientific experiments or research) conducted or produced by means of computer modelling or computer simulation
bare	very or rarely: used as an intensifier e.g. that boy’s bare bold	listicle	an article on the Internet presented in the form of a numbered or bullet-pointed list
bedroom tax	(Welfare Act in the UK) amount of housing benefit paid to a claimant is reduced if the property they are renting is judged to have more bedrooms than necessary	live-tweet	to post comments about (an event) on Twitter while the event is taking place
binge-watch	watching multiple episodes or films in rapid succession	mansplain	(of a man) explain (something) to someone, typically a woman, in a manner regarded as condescending or patronizing
brick	cause (a smartphone or the like) to become completely unable to function on a permanent basis	nailed on	constituting a certainty; guaranteed to happen or definitely the case
bro-hug	[another term for man hug] a friendly embrace between two men	neckbeard	a growth of hair on a man’s neck, especially when regarded as indicative of poor grooming
catfish	to lure someone into a relationship by adopting a fictional online persona	olinguito	a small nocturnal tree-dwelling mammal living in cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador; first described in 2013, it is the smallest member of the raccoon family
clickbait	(on the Internet) content, especially that of a sensational or provocative nature, whose main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular Web page	pharmacovigilance	the practice of monitoring the effects of medical drugs after they have been licensed for use, especially in order to identify and evaluate previously unreported adverse reactions
cord cutter	a person who cancels a television subscription or landline phone connection in favour of an alternative Internet-based or wireless service	pogonophobia	extreme dislike of beards
cotch	to spend time relaxing
cray	short for ‘crazy’	side-eye	a sidelong glance expressing disapproval or contempt
doncha	short for’ don’t you’	SMH	shaking (or shake) my head (used in e-communication to express disapproval, exasperation, frustration, etc.)
douchebaggery	obnoxious or contemptible behaviour	spit take	(especially as a comic technique) an act of suddenly spitting out liquid one is drinking in response to something funny or surprising
dox / doxx	to search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent	subtweet	(on Twitter) a post that refers to a particular user without directly mentioning them, typically as a form of furtive mockery or criticism
e-cig	another term for electronic cigarette	trackback	an automatic notification sent when a link has been created to a person’s blog post from an external website, allowing a reciprocal link to that website to be created
fandom	fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. regarded collectively as a community or subculture	trigger warning	a statement at the start of a piece of writing, video, etc. alerting the reader or viewer to the fact that it contains potentially distressing material
		vape	inhale and exhale the vapour produced by an electronic cigarette or similar device
fratty	characteristics or a student fraternity or its members	vax	a vaccine or vaccination
hench	(of a man) being strong, fit, and having well-developed muscles	WDYT	abbreviation: What do you think? (used in electronic communication)
hexacopter	an unmanned helicopter having six rotors	YOLO	abbreviation: You only live once (expressing the view that one should make the most of the present moment without worrying about the future, and often used as a rationale for impulsive or reckless behaviour)
hot diggity	used to express excitement or delight at a situation	zonkey	the hybrid offspring of a donkey and a zebra