Lingual updates

[maquiscat]

For those who say that words can't change in their meaning and use and complain that some words are being made up:

Hard pass. Cold brew. Dad bod. Merriam-Webster adds over 5,000 words to 'Collegiate' dictionary

Merriam-Webster has fully revised its popular “Collegiate” dictionary with over 5,000 new words. They include “petrichor,” “dumbphone” and “ghost kitchen.”

apnews.com

Note that this is the Collegiate edition and removing words like "enwheel" only means that you have to use other editions for the words that have shifted in to the archaic mode. So yes, "rizz" is now common enough to be in the dictionary, but it is still slang, and not common use.

 

[soylentgreen]

.And especially for those that think some words are made up. All words are made up.

 

[btthegreat]

For those who say that words can't change in their meaning and use and complain that some words are being made up:

Hard pass. Cold brew. Dad bod. Merriam-Webster adds over 5,000 words to 'Collegiate' dictionary

Merriam-Webster has fully revised its popular “Collegiate” dictionary with over 5,000 new words. They include “petrichor,” “dumbphone” and “ghost kitchen.”

apnews.com

Note that this is the Collegiate edition and removing words like "enwheel" only means that you have to use other editions for the words that have shifted in to the archaic mode. So yes, "rizz" is now common enough to be in the dictionary, but it is still slang, and not common use.

I am one of the few who occasionally reach for a dictionary for fun. Yes, its 'fun' to look at new words, try to guess what they mean, and find out if you are right.
Psssst sometimes I read the histories/ etymology of these words too, but that stays strictly confidential. I don't need that to get out. I deserve a social life too.

 

[Loulit01]

I'm still very upset literally no longer literally means literally. Now we have no word for literally. I threw a fit when that happened. Metaphorically.

 

[maquiscat]

I'm still very upset literally no longer literally means literally. Now we have no word for literally. I threw a fit when that happened. Metaphorically.

Ironically, it's been like that since the 17th century

literally(adv.)
1530s, "in a literal sense, according to the exact meaning of the word or words used," from literal + -ly (2). Since late 17c. it has been used in metaphors, hyperbole, etc., to indicate what follows must be taken in the strongest admissible sense. But this is irreconcilable with the word's etymological sense and has led to this much-lamented modern use of it.

We have come to such a pass with this emphasizer that where the truth would require us to insert with a strong expression 'not literally, of course, but in a manner of speaking', we do not hesitate to insert the very word we ought to be at pains to repudiate; ... such false coin makes honest traffic in words impossible. [Fowler, 1924]

And it still means and is used as the original sense. Context tells us which sense it is used in.

 

[Loulit01]

Ironically, it's been like that since the 17th century

But it was not defined that way in dictionaries.

And it still means and is used as the original sense. Context tells us which sense it is used in.

Not always.

 

[maquiscat]

But it was not defined that way in dictionaries.

Dictionaries are reflective and it takes a while before a given use becomes commonplace enough to be entered into the dictionaries. Although with the modern communications we have i think that lag is getting shorter, before it's realized how common the use is, whether it be slang, idiom, common use or whatever.

Not always.

True enough in that the speaker/writer doesn't always make that context clear. But usually one can determine, especially if it seems rather exaggerated.