Online reference site Dictionary.com has added 300 news words ranging from “alt-right” and “Black Lives Matter” to “ambivalent sexism” and “bitchface”.
The California-based reference site added new words to reflect the language trends in English-speaking culture, TIME reported. Among the newly added words added on Thursday are terms such as “alt-right” noting that it’s “a political movement … composed of a segment of conservatives who support extreme right-wing ideologies.”
Dictionary.com also added the term “Black Lives Matter“—meaning “a political and social movement originating among African Americans, emphasizing basic human rights and racial equality for black people and campaigning against various forms of racism.”
The latest batch of new entries also includes identity-focused words and terms such as “blaxican“—meaning someone a person who identifies “as both African American and Mexican-American”—and “hapa“.
Terms like “ambivalent sexism”—meaning the theory that “sexism toward women is multidimensional” and can take in a number of forms (such as celebrating “positive of views of women” who conform to traditional gender roles)—made the cut the reference site as well.
According to a statement by Dictionary.com CEO Liz McMillan, “Our users turn to us to define the words they see, hear, and read—and in today’s highly politicized world, we play a necessary role in helping users dissect the meaning of words heard in this period of political discourse.”
But the reference site didn’t add just political terms—it included a number of slang words, like “Slay” (a term popularized by Beyonce and means “to strongly impress or overwhelm someone”) and “hangry” ( meaning “feeling irritable or irrationally angry as a result of being hungry”).
The site also added a note to the entry for “420” in an attempt to settle the debate once and for all where the number combination, referring to all kinds of things related to marijuana, came from:
Origin of 420: First recorded in 1970-75; a code word derived from the meeting time of a particular group of marijuana smokers in 1971, later popularized by fans of the band the Grateful Dead.
Other words that were included in Dictionary.com’s the latest batch:
Bama (n.): a person from Alabama or the southern U.S.
Bitchface (n.) 1. a facial expression that does not consciously express a particular emotion but that others perceive as scowling, threatening 2. a deliberate facial expression of anger or disgust, often employed to appear unapproachable
Burkini (n.): the proprietary name of a type of bathing suit covering the torso, limbs, and head, worn by women or girls who want to keep their bodies completely covered, especially for religious reasons.
Dabbing (n.): the act of performing a dance move that involves posing with one’s nose in the crook of a bent elbow at chest level while extending the other arm to the side at or above shoulder level, often as a celebratory posture in sports or other competitions.
De facto segregation (n.): racial, ethnic, or other segregation resulting from societal differences between groups, as socioeconomic or political disparity, without institutionalized legislation intended to segregate.
Mic drop (n.): the act of intentionally dropping one’s microphone at the end of a speech or performance, displaying a bold confidence that it has been very impressive or cannot be topped.
