Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Merriam-Webster Dictionary Adds “Selfie,” “Hashtag” & Other Words

A list of words regularly used on social media are being officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
The publishing company announced Monday (May 19) that "selfie," "hashtag," "unfriend," "catfish," and "tweep" are among a list of 150 words recently added.
"So many of these new words show the impact of online connectivity to our lives and livelihoods," Peter Sokolowski, editor at large, wrote on the company’s website. "Tweep" and "hashtag," for example, come directly from their use on social media. Specifically, Twitter and Facebook.
Below are the definitions of the words mentioned. See more at Merriam-Webster.com.

catfish (noun) : a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes

hashtag (noun) : a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text (such as a tweet)

selfie (noun) : an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera especially for posting on social networks

tweep (noun) : a person who uses the Twitter online message service to send and receive tweets

unfriend (v.t.) : to remove (someone) from a list of designated friends on a person’s social networking Web site

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