This week, the Cambridge Dictionary added 3,200 new words and phrases including internet slang ‘boop‘, ‘the ick‘, ‘chef’s kiss’, and ‘scicomm.’
Wendalyn Nichols, Cambridge Dictionary’s publishing manager, said that while language is constantly evolving, these new additions have “staying power,” BBC reported.
In a statement, the dictionary said, “Language is always changing, and this means that the ‘Cambridge Dictionary’ team stays busy researching new words and meanings that enter the English language.”
“Many new additions come from the fields of science and technology, including ‘scicomm’ – the activity of explaining scientific work and information to people who are not scientists, or articles, talks, etc. that do this, and deep-sky – existing in or relating to the part of space outside the solar system,” it added.
Boop, which is defined as “a gentle hit or touch on a person’s or animal’s nose or head, showing that you like them or as a joke”
On internet, one of the most common abbreviation used is IYKYK (If You Know You Know) which is used as a joke or shared knowledge with the reader that other people might not understand.
The noun “face journey” has been added to refer to “a series of expressions that appear on someone’s face showing different emotions that they are experiencing as a reaction to something”.
‘Cambridge Dictionary’ said its team records how English is actually used by real people and uses the Cambridge English Corpus, a huge collection of written and spoken English, to gather evidence for how a new word is used by different people and in a variety of situations, PTI reported.
The online gaming also inspired several new entries, such as ‘backread’ – to read through a series of messages or internet posts that you did not see when they were first created, often starting with the most recent, in order to learn what happened or was discussed earlier; ‘speedrun’ – to complete a computer game, or part of a computer game, as quickly as possible, especially by taking advantage of any glitches; and ‘side quest’ – a part of a computer game that has its own aim and story but is not part of the main game.
Colin McIntosh, Cambridge Dictionary’s programme manager, said: “These gaming-inspired words have also begun to influence how we talk about our offline lives.”
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