Merriam-Webster Rolls Out New Words

Merriam-Webster is ready to add about 100 new words to its eleventh edition Collegiate Dictionary. A number - like the Korean chaebol for a family-controlled large company, the filled Italian pasta agnolotti, India's Bollywood region, and the Latin-American soap operas called telenovelas - are American adoptions of foreign terms. But there are some unusual other ones:

• crunk - a style of Southern rap music featuring repetitive chants and rapid dance rhythms


• microgreen - a shoot of a standard salad plant (We used to call this a piece.)


• viewshed - the natural environment that is visible from one or more viewing points (What ever happened to the word view?)


• smackdown - the act of knocking down or bringing down an opponent (from professional wrestling, when defeating someone isn't enough).

I don't think a few words show a trend, but it is interesting how as a culture we do seem enamored of coming up with newer, shinier, more complex names for things that are already named. Maybe the plain experience of life isn't enough as we've become part of the grand marketing that is global society.