English Wins the Lottery

Say, did the English language win the lottery or what?

The folks at Merriam-Webster have added 1,400 new English words to their dictionary.

Now we’ve got to be careful here because several of the so called new words (for instance, superfood) have been used by people for years.

In including new words, dictionaries often trail popular use by several years. Dictionaries like Merriam-Webster or OED, as far as I know, do not coin new words but merely give them their seal of approval by listing them in the dictionaries.

Let's take a dekko at some of the new words. Their meanings (provided below) are taken verbatim from the Merriam-Webster web site. The examples are mine.

The new words include:

• glow up: "a usually dramatic enhancement especially to someone's or something's physical appearance"
  Example: Tollywood actress Deepika Mandanna attributed her glow up to stopping junk food.
• superfood: “a food (such as salmon, broccoli, or blueberries) that is rich in nutrients (such as antioxidants, fiber, or fatty acids) considered beneficial to one's health”
  Example: My family doctor tells me that blueberries and avocado are superfood.
• looksmaxxing: “ the practice of taking one or more sometimes extreme or dangerous measures intended to increase one's physical attractiveness”
  Example: Is cosmetic surgery an example of looksmaxxing?
• California sober: “engaging in or characterized by recreational use of marijuana and/or alcohol combined with abstinence from other drugs (such as cocaine or methamphetamine)”
  Example: You can always count on Mike to be California sober as he has always shied away from hard drugs like heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, nitazene and cychlorphine.
• yacht rock: “a style of soft rock music originating in the 1970s and 1980s"
  Example: You can count on me to stay away from yacht rock. Hey, I’m a jazz loyalist.
• meme coin: “an altcoin that is created typically as a humorous tribute to something (such as an Internet meme) or someone (such as a celebrity) and that typically has no real utility”
  Example: Why do so many people fall for meme coins?
• AGI (Artificial General Intelligence): “the potential capability of computer systems or algorithms to match or exceed human cognitive abilities (such as reasoning and learning)”
  Example: Truth be said, I think AI startups are engaging in false hype that their AI models are close to achieving AGI.
• uncanny valley: “a psychological effect characterized by feelings of unease or revulsion in response to the nearly but imperfectly lifelike quality of something (such as a doll, a robot, an AI-generated image or voice, or a computer-animated character) that is intended to simulate a human”
  Example: Is uncanny valley a loose synonym of anthropomorphism?
• vibe coding: "the act or practice of using an artificial intelligence system to generate computer code in a given programming language"
  Example: What you save in time via vibe coding you lose later in difficulties with debugging.