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07th Feb 2017

‘Ride shotgun’ and ‘first world problem’ amongst new terms added to Webster’s Dictionary

Conor Heneghan

This is the English language in 2017.

The way people communicate has changed dramatically in the Internet age and though some traditionalists might rage against replacing words with emojis or some of the terms the kids use these days, there comes a point where we all have to get with the times.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has been in existence since 1828 but there’s no danger that it’s going to be left behind in the linguistic stakes, having added 1,000 new terms to the dictionary this week.

Many of the new terms are very much reflective of the times we live in, such as ‘binge-watch’, ‘photobomb’ and ‘ghost,’ which now means to suddenly cease all communication with someone. Apparently.

‘Ride shotgun’, ‘humblebrag’ and ‘food insecure’ are more examples of the 1,000 new terms that you can see in more detail here; fear not if you haven’t heard of half of them, we can assure you you’re not the only one.

Catch up with this week’s episode of 888sport Football Friday Live

Topics:

Dictionary,Words