Reading a dictionary is one of the best ways to expand your vocabulary. Almost every year new words get added to the latest dictionary editions. English has a tendency to absorb new words from other languages. The year 2013 also saw the addition of a few words to the ever expanding dictionaries. Given below is a list of a few of the new words, which have been widely accepted:
- Buzzworthy: It has been derived from the popular word “buzz”, which means general excitement and activity. Anything ‘Buzzworthy’ is sure to get attention and interest from the public. For example: The new novel is sure to be one of the most buzzworthy books for Pulitzer this year.
- Clunker: A clunker is referred to an old machine, especially an old car. A clunked represents something that doesn’t function well. It can also represent someone or something that fails. For example: I owned that clunker for over 10 years and want to sell it now.
- Flash Mob: This is a new term that is used to describe a lot of people who goes to a certain public place, performs, sings and dances, then disperses into the crowd. Social media sites or the Internet organises such mobs. For example: Flash mob recreates ‘Peanuts’ holiday scene in NYC.
- Geekery: This term refers to behaviours or actions typical of geeks. For example, Geekery can be used in the following context: Kim and Tom spent a lot of time together discussing about Star Trek geekery.
- Live blog: This new word is used to describe a blog that is used to make frequent, short posts to comment on some on-going event. For example – Sam live-blogged the schedule of the ongoing annual meeting of the college committee.
- Selfie: You must have recently come across this word in social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. The word means a photograph that a person takes of himself/herself. It can be used in a sentence like – These days a lot of people post selfie on Facebook.
Words like these are emerging almost every day and thus, dictionaries are expanding.
The Learning Tree 