Advertisement

'Shakshuka,' 'Burner' And 'MacGuffin' Are Among This Year's American Heritage Dictionary Additions

11:07
Download Audio
Resume
One word added to the American Heritage Dictionary this year is gose, an unfiltered, sour wheat beer of German origin, often brewed with coriander and salt. (stevepb/Pixabay)
One word added to the American Heritage Dictionary this year is gose, an unfiltered, sour wheat beer of German origin, often brewed with coriander and salt. (stevepb/Pixabay)

Steve Kleinedler (@SKleinedler), executive editor of the American Heritage Dictionaries, joins Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd to go through some of the new words American Heritage added this year.

19 New Words In The American Heritage Dictionary

Delicious Food Terms

  • gose: An unfiltered, sour wheat beer of German origin, often brewed with coriander and salt. (to appear Jan 2018)
  • merguez: A spicy, North African sausage that is made with lamb or sometimes beef, is red in color and is flavored with harissa, paprika, garlic, cumin and other spices.
  • saltimbocca: A tenderized cutlet of veal or chicken topped with prosciutto, sage and sometimes cheese.
  • shakshuka: A North African dish of eggs poached or baked in a spicy tomato sauce.
  • stromboli: A baked turnover of pizza dough rolled around a filling of cheese, meat and often vegetables. (to appear Jan 2018)

General Interest Terms

  • GOAT: abbr. greatest of all time
  • kettle (from birding): noun: A group of flying raptors, especially when ascending in a rising current of warm air. verb: To fly on a rising current of warm air. Used of birds.
  • MacGuffin: An object in a work of fiction, especially in film, whose only purpose is to advance the plot.
  • orthorexia: Excessive preoccupation with one's dietary choices, especially with regard to the purity or healthfulness of the foods one eats.
  • prepper: One who prepares for possible dangers such as natural disasters, societal collapse or nuclear war, as by stockpiling necessary supplies or acquiring survival skills.
  • snowflake (new sense): A person who is considered to be overly sensitive or too easily offended, especially as a result of believing himself or herself to be unique or special.
  • unicorn: (new senses) 1. Something that is greatly desired but difficult or impossible to find. 2. A startup company valued at $1 billion or more.
  • upcycle: To recycle (something broken, discarded or worn out) by repurposing it to create a useful or aesthetically pleasing new product: "Using vibrant paint, I upcycled the wine bottle into a vase." (to appear Jan 2018)

Science And Technology Terms

  • burner: An inexpensive cellphone, especially one for which usage is paid in advance and which can be thrown away easily if necessary.
  • dark web: An encrypted network of servers and clients that connect users to websites anonymously, making it difficult to trace users or website operators.
  • deep web: The part of the World Wide Web that is not indexed by search engines and is therefore not included in search results.
  • haptics: The use of the sense of touch, especially in social interactions or in interfaces between humans and computers.
  • internet: First form now lowercased.

This segment aired on November 24, 2017.

Related:

Advertisement

More from Here & Now

Listen Live
Close