New Word Order

Ten thousand new words made it into the new Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Editors are constantly monitoring language for new words to include. “If ‘cowboy up’ or other promising newcomers – at the moment, ‘blog’ and ‘senior moment’ are coming up fast on the outside – appear in a wide range of published sources over a sustained period of time, they could land a spot in the next edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary a decade or so from now. If not, they will meet the fate of such former up-and-comers as “vidiocy” and “cable-ready,” which now sit forlornly atop the citation files in brown cardboard boxes marked “rejected,” or old standbys like “long play,” which was dropped from the dictionary because CDs have supplanted long-playing records.”