The Oxford Dictionary has issued a
list of new words. (Scroll down the web page for all the definitions.)
A couple of the words, such as the two references to the Reddit website, are too “inside baseball” or over-specialized. Others, such as “Brexit,” “Grexit,” are a tad ephemeral and might not survive over the next news cycle. And even if you’re a frequent patron of restaurants rather than a cook-at-home person, you probably won’t use the new culinary terms - “cakeage,” “cat cake,” “barbacoa” every day.
Yet many of the new coinages are appealing: “”bant” “butt (or pocket) dialing,” and “weak sauce.” On the other hand, I’m not a big fan of “awesomesauce,” since “awesome” itself has been used almost as many times as we’ve had to listen to that ubiquitous song from “Frozen.”
Although it’s not included in the list, another term I dislike is “like” in the sense of “said.” Not too long ago, language purists used to get “butt-hurt” when kids used to substitute “go” for “said”: “He goes ‘I’m leaving,’ and I go ‘So soon?’ “ But now “go”has been replaced by “like.” “ He’s like ‘I’m outa here,’ and I’m like ‘WTF!’ “
Believe or not, I am actually relieved that we’re still creative enough to invent new words. That’s what keeps language alive. It helps me feel better to know that we haven’t yet become a post-verbal society.