Just like America itself, the English language is constantly evolving. And the arbiter of the English language, at least according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the Oxford English Dictionary. Every year the Oxford English Dictionary adds a few new words to its latest edition. But not every new word. That’s why there exists a branch of the Oxford English Dictionary organization called, cleverly, Oxford Dictionaries.
Oxford Dictionaries focuses on modern language. It keeps track of words and phrases people are using right now and how they’re using them. This week Oxford Dictionaries announced its latest additions to its modern list. Some of these words and phrases will never make into the real Oxford English Dictionary, but Oxford Dictionaries will make sure we remember that they were being used in 2015. Here are some of the more interesting examples.
“Awesomesauce” is a word I first heard Chris Pratt use on the sitcom “Parks and Recreation”. It means, simply, excellent or extremely good. The opposite would be “weaksauce”.
“Beer o’clock” means it’s the time of day to start drinking beer. To some, beer o’clock is 5pm. To others, it’s 9am. Your beer o’clock may vary. And you may prefer to call it “wine o’clock”.
“Brain fart” is a temporary mental lapse. I’m surprised that one is only now being added to the Oxford Dictionaries list. I remember using the term in college 30 years ago. Way too many times.
“Butt dial” is when you accidentally call someone with your cellphone. Butt dialing is dangerous because the person who has been called usually knows it’s you, since most cellphones have caller ID now. And often the person who has been called doesn’t hang up right away. Instead, they hear everything you say until either you discover your mistake or they get tired of listening. It’s a bit like volunteering personal information to the NSA. Butt dialing refers to the tendency of some people to keep their cellphones in their back pocket, which is often too tight, resulting in inadvertently pushed buttons. The butt part makes sense, but I don’t know of any cellphones that actually dial. Even house phones stopped dialing some time in the 1970’s. The more genteel among us may use the term “pocket dial” in its place.
“Butthurt” is a term I first saw used in the comic strip “Calvin and Hobbes”. It means that your feelings have been hurt, and you’re angry about it. And “pocket hurt” would not be a suitable substitute.
“Fatberg” is not a Jewish surname, but an actual conglomeration of congealed fat, garbage and other waste material that forms into a solid mass in the sewer. It’s like an iceberg, but warmer and considerably more gross. And in the sewer.
“Fat-shame” means to mock or tease a fat person about being fat, generally with the lifelong thin person’s attitude that obesity is an easily-solved problem.
“Hangry” means you’re angry because you’re hungry.
“MacGyver” is a verb meaning you improvise or invent something using only available materials. Again, I’m surprised this one is just now making the list, since the television show “MacGyver”, for which it is named, went off the air in 1992.
“Manspreading” is definitely a term I hadn’t heard until 2015. It’s when a man sits down, possibly on the subway or in the bleachers, and keeps his legs spread far enough apart to encroach on an extra seat.
“Swatting” is a new one to me. It’s the act of falsely reporting a crime or emergency in order to get police and other emergency workers to show up at a particular address, possibly causing embarrassment for the resident. It comes from the term “SWAT”, which refers to a police unit using “special weapons and tactics”. It’s also not as easy as it used to be because of the aforementioned caller ID.
I’ll wrap this up, as I’m hangry after being fat-shamed about manspreading and need to MacGyver lunch before I get all butthurt. As Rowan and Martin used to say, “Look that up in your Funk and Wagnalls”. But it won’t be there, because it’s only in the Oxford Dictionaries.
