The Oxford English Dictionary announced in June about 500 words have been added to its dictionary.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The article about the added words made me all warm and fuzzy inside, as if I had just opened a gift of eight-track cassettes of C-Span’s Book TV \u2013 the greatest hits.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I suspect 500 words is larger than my entire working vocabulary, unless growls, gasps and weird sounds count. And I think they do.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Here are a few of Oxford’s additions that caught my wandering attention.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Carnap \u2013 stealing a car, (not what I do while driving). It was first used as a verb in 1937 in the Helena Independent.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Gointer \u2013 It is a verb and one of my new favorites. Oxford said it is a colloquial expression for going to. Example: I am gointer regurgitate your so called food. Is this a great word or what? You say going to, I say gointer.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Koozie \u2013 It’s a noun for a sleeve to keep drinks cold (or more likely concealed). Sounds to me like the name of a hit parade 80s rock band \u2013 Koozie and Krumb Topping.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Stanky \u2013 a noun. It is the smell of a teenage boys locker room on a 90-degree day.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For me, there are few things more entertaining than looking up the meaning of words I will never remember or be able to spell.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
As I scanned the list it occurred to me there are a number of words I know that for some reason are not in the Oxford dictionary. I checked.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I have considered sending them a list of useful verbals and nounettes to add next time.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Here are a few.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Whack-noodle \u2013 verb, adjective, noun, gerund, pronoun, interjection, conjunction. Often heard during off-the-record phone conversations during political season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Wieneeworst \u2013 adjective and intransitive verb. How my brain functions in the morning.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Brillohead \u2013 some sort of noun, or maybe an interjection. A new hairstyle I am seeing around the office.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u2022 Fricasseed barf \u2013 noun, adjective, gerund. A Christmas food and how the Democrats and Republicans in Olympia described each other after the 2015 operating budget vote.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I bet this is how Samuel Johnson got started writing his Dictionary of the English Language.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Maybe I have stumbled upon a new calling, like a loud moo from across the field, followed by a light from above, or below, then a voice whispers in my ear: Write it and they will think you’re nuts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Reach Dennis Box, Covington Reporter regional editor, at dbox@maplevalleyreporter.com or 425-432-1209, ext. 5050.<\/em><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Oxford English Dictionary announced in June about 500 words have been added to its dictionary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/215"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13430"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}