For the first time in more than two decades, there's a new hard-copy update to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. It adds more than 5,000 new words and phrases. Peter Sokolowski, editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster, joins "The Takeout" to unpack the changes.

Springfield

Merriam-Webster has published its first hard copy dictionary update in more than two decades, introducing over 5,000 new words and phrases. Editor-at-large Peter Sokolowski detailed the process, which involves extensive research, collecting citations from published sources, and ensuring words are widely used in print by fluent speakers.

The update includes terms such as "hard pass," "cold brew," "riz," and "farm to table," many of which originated in digital communication but gained legitimacy through use in major publications. The dictionary aims to reflect the current active vocabulary of American English, focusing on words with lasting relevance rather than fleeting trends.

How Merriam-Webster decides to add new words, phrases to dictionary

Welcome back to the Takeout, welcome to the Conversation Corner. You know, sometime next year, maybe early on, we might have a Nerd Alert graphic and sound because this is a Nerd Alert segment, and I love Nerd Alert segments because I'm a nerd. First time in more than two decades, there is a new hard copy update to the Merriam-Webster dictionary. It adds more than 5,000 new words and phrases. I want to bring in Peter Sokolowski, he is the editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster. Peter, what a pleasure to have you here. It's a treat for me, thank you. And this must be one of the greatest jobs ever. Oh, it's a fun job if you love words, you know. And I love words. Tell me about how do new words, idioms, phrases, make it from here to there? Right, the job is research, the job is revision. Because a new sense to an existing word might be part of what we find. We scour text. If something is used by many people, if it's used in print, for example, many times, we will clock it, we will notice it, we will seek citations—what we call them citations—evidence of their use. And especially evidence of their use in very big publications, which means a broad audience is intended for that word. The editors and the writers think that their readers should know this word or will know this word. And then there's the linguistic white gloves. Is the word in quotes? Is it explained in parentheses or is it in italics? Once we see those things come off, that means people think this is a word that a fluent speaker will know. That's the moment it goes in the dictionary. So hard pass. We mentioned that going to break. Cold brew is one of them. Riz. How do they show up? And farm to table. Farm to table. What happens is a lot of these might be initially texting or social media kinds of terminology or the kind of, the crunching, like, am I right, you know, when the sort of—or LOL. But I mean, there's a lot of that. But it gets transcribed and it gets written, it gets published. It might be in The New York Times or The Washington Post. And you see those things transcribed, and really, printed, published writing is the gold standard for us because we need to see the evidence in order to assess it. So it's not just spoken slang because that moves into print. And once it's in print, then it goes to the dictionary. So we're a little bit of a lag indicator of the language, and we're looking in the rearview mirror. We need to report the facts, which means we need to assemble them. And they need to be sticky. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because jargony that only lasts for a year doesn't have the stickiness quality that ends up here. That's right. And it's absolutely true. Words come and words go. And so, the fact is, we've always tried to be the record of the current active vocabulary of American English. And active is the key word. You know, is the word really in use? Is it just a fad? Is it just, you know—or is it connected to a movie or just something that will go away? Are there any one or two or three phrases, idioms, or words that you like most that have been added? I love the word petrichor, which is new to this. Do you know that word? I do not. Yeah, it's interesting because it's a word that's been floating around in my life for a couple of decades. And I always used to think— What's it mean? Petrichor is the smell of the earth after rain. So the smell that—or sometimes you step out on a city street on a summer night, and it's rain that has a distinctive odor. And there's a chemical process, and that is a distinctive, nameable odor. And petrichor is the name of the CH, petrichor. And I always used to think it was kind of a false word, because it was always the answer to the question, did you know we have a word for this smell? But now I see that word used in fluent writing and in fluent speech without explanation, and it's a word in— And I'm gathering it can be modified. There could be an urban petrichor and a rural petrichor. And you know it, because we've lived it, and it's a name for a real thing. And what's Riz? Riz Charisma. I mean, it's sort of a short part of— That's why I don't know anything about it. Did we need cold brew? Well, yes, because, I mean, a cold brew is—it's not—if you look up cold and you look up brew, you don't get the sum of those parts. The fusion. It's like dad bod or dad joke, which are also new to this edition. I know something about dad jokes. I know nothing about the dad bod. Peter Salakowski, so great to have you. Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. I'm a nerd. I love it.

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