Unibrow and Himbo Make It Into the Dictionary
Posted on July 7, 2006
Some new words have been added to the dictionary.
Need tips on how to groom a unibrow or soul patch? Just google it. Or get a mouse potato to do it for you. If you're still lost, grab the latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary for a definition of those and about 100 other words that have made their way into its pages. But be warned: you might come across a drama queen (a person given to often excessively emotional performances or reactions), an empty suit (an ineffectual executive), or a himbo (an attractive but vacuous man _ think "male bimbo".)No word yet from Google's attorneys about the fact that the dictionary now uses their trademarked name as a verb. Merriam-Webster says that they use the word with a small "g" to denote the verb form, e.g., "I googled his name and came up with 1,000 results." From a trademark law perspective it is not a good thing when your trademarked company name becomes a verb -- or a noun, for that matter. Just ask Xerox. Or Kleenex."We try to have a mix that addresses the wide range of people's information needs when adding new words," said John Morse, president of the Springfield-based dictionary publisher. "It could be a technical term or some light-hearted slang that sends people to a dictionary." To make it into the dictionary, a word has to be more than a flash-in-the-pan fad. It needs staying power.
"We need evidence that the word is showing up in publications that people are reading on an everyday basis," Morse said. Lexicographers comb through national newspapers, entertainment magazines, trade journals and Web sites in search of new words and phrases. As has been the case during the past several years, Merriam-Webster's lexicographers have been largely preoccupied with technology and computers for its latest edition, which will be widely available at the end of the summer.