The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has recently added more than 1,100 new words, senses, and sub entries.
While words like ‘hangry’ are most likely part of your vocabulary, they now have an official stamp of approval as part of a new group of words being added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
Modern words like ‘me time’ (“time devoted to doing what one wants, typically on one’s own”), are joined by words you may not have heard of, such as ‘hazzled (meaning ‘chapped’), and ‘electric catfish’ (a type of fish). ‘Swag’ (“bold self-assurance in style or manner”), ‘ransomware’ (“a type of malware designed to block access to applications or les on a computer system until a sum of money is paid”) and ‘snowflake’ are also other words that have been added.
The use of snowflake as a derogatory term has become “prominent on social media in recent years,” Connor Martin explains – but the word actually has its roots in something a lot more positive. In 1983, the term referred to “a person, especially a child, regarding as having a unique personality and potential”.
The reason for the change happened mainly in the 1990s, because of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club, which precipitated the word’s move towards a term used to describe someone as “overly sensitive or easily offended. In this way, the original idea of a snowflake’s uniqueness has been displaced by allusion to its fragility,” Connor Martin says.
And while hangry may seem like it has only just come into common usage it actually dates back to 1956 when it appeared in a psychoanalytic journal.
