Informally used words such as ‘boop’ and ‘the ick’ are among more than 3,200 new words and phrases added this week to the latest update of the Cambridge Dictionary.
‘Boop’, defined as “a gentle poke or touch on the nose or head of a person or animal to show that you like them or as a “joke”, and ‘the ick’, meaning “a sudden feeling that you dislike someone or something or that you are no longer attracted to someone because of something they have done”, are among the swear words included so far in the 2024 online version.
The ‘chef’s kiss’, or the act where you put your fingers and thumb together, kiss them, then pull your hand away from your lips to show that you think something or someone is perfect or excellent, is another informal phrase that has been formally recognised.
“Language is always changing, and that means the Cambridge Dictionaries team is busy researching new words and meanings as they enter the English language,” the dictionary said in a statement on Thursday.
It says, “Several new terms have been added from the field of science and technology, including ‘scicom’ – the activity of explaining scientific work and information to people who are not scientists, or articles, talks, etc. that do so, and deep-sky – that which exists in or relates to the parts of space outside the solar system.”
Some other quirky words include IYKYK, which is a written acronym for “if you know then you know.” It is mostly used in social media and text messages to express a joke or shared knowledge with the reader that others may not understand.
The noun “face journey” has been added to describe “a series of expressions that appear on someone’s face, reflecting the different emotions they are experiencing in response to something.”
Cambridge Dictionaries said its team records how real people use English, and uses the Cambridge English Corpus, a huge collection of written and spoken English, to gather evidence of how a new word is used by different people and in different situations.
“We also collect evidence of new words that have recently entered English. We feature three of these on our weekly blog About Words, where readers can vote for which words they think should be added to the dictionary,” referring to the process of adding new words.
Online gaming has also inspired a number of new entries, such as ‘backread’ – reading a series of messages or Internet posts that you did not see when they were first made, often starting with the most recent message, in order to find out what happened or was discussed previously; ‘speedrun’ – completing a computer game, or part of a computer game, as quickly as possible, especially by taking advantage of any glitches; and ‘side quest’ – a section of a computer game that has its own objective and story, but is not part of the main game.
Newer additions to the music world include ‘soca’ or a type of music that is a mixture of soul and calypso, originally from the Caribbean, and ‘jug band’ which refers to a small group of performers who play jazz, blues or folk music on very simple musical instruments, particularly using objects such as empty jugs as instruments.
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