Experts judge a healthy language by its marks of ingenuity.
Does it create new words, borrow from other languages, or assign new meaning to existing terms? On those counts, American English “is very (very!) healthy,” researchers at the Merriam-Webster Dictionary say. In 2023, Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com, which is based on Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, added hundreds of words and phrases.
Many new terms reflect the effects of rapid technological change on modern life. Others are inspired by pop culture or world events. Cutting-edge technology spawned the term ‘generative AI’, a new entrant added by Merriam-Webster.
It’s short for “artificial intelligence that is capable of generating new content (such as images or text) in response to a submitted prompt (such as a query) by learning from a large reference database of examples.” Partly in response to the pandemic, science and medicine introduced ‘superdodger’, which now appears in Dictionary.com.
The word means “anyone who, for unverified reasons, remains uninfected or asymptomatic even after repeated exposure to a contagious virus.” Along somewhat similar lines, Dictionary.com added ‘antifragile’, a new adjective defined as “becoming more robust when exposed to stressors, uncertainty or risk.”
(Example: “We’ve made the structure sturdy and antifragile, so bad weather makes it stronger.”)
Some new words put a playful spin on familiar terms. Sports fans will recognise the recently added ‘northpaw’, for “an athlete, usually a (baseball) pitcher or a boxer, who is right-handed,” as an inversion of the well-known “southpaw,” meaning left-hander.
A twist on the existing term “newlywed” reflects society’s evolving relationships. A ‘nearlywed’ has a life partner but “no planned wedding date, sometimes with no intention of marrying,” Dictionary.com says.
In a nod to pop culture, Dictionary.com added ‘nepo baby’ for a famous person “who has at least one parent, or another close family member, who is a celebrity.” Derived from “nepotism,” which refers to favouritism through family connections, a nepo baby’s fame or success were enabled at least in part through that of a family member.
Slang injects a dash of energy and fun into the 2023 additions to American English. Merriam-Webster added ‘zhuzh’, which means to make “a small improvement, adjustment or addition that completes the overall look, taste, etc., of something.”
The verb is often used with “up,” as in, “You need to zhuzh up your outfit.” Merriam-Webster also added the slang word ‘rizz’ (“romantic appeal or charm”), which derives from “charisma.”
Taken together, these and other new words provide insight into our complex, modern world. “There is a lot happening out there,” Nick Norlen, senior editor at Dictionary.com, said in an essay this year.
“Our lexicographers observe it all, documenting language change wherever it’s happening and defining the terms that help us to understand our times.”
