Skibidi, delulu, tradwife added to Cambridge Dictionary
These are terms popularized by influencers, international leaders, and others and they’ve become part of the online lexicon.
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These are terms popularized by influencers, international leaders, and others and they’ve become part of the online lexicon.
A host of new slang terms are among the 6,212 new words added to "the world's most popular online dictionary for learners of English" during the past year. These are terms popularized by influencers, international leaders, and others and they've become part of the online lexicon.
"Skibidi," which emerged entirely from the depths of YouTube, means almost whatever you want it to mean, from cool to bad to whatever. Kids say it, and they laugh when adults utter the phrase, but adults utter it anyway. Middle school teachers have made entire Instagram posts about how they've banned it, and words like "sigma," from their classrooms.
"Delulu" is another addition, which is simply short for delusional. "Broligarchy," which sounds like what it means, and "tradwife," are also terms that have been added to the Cambridge Dictionary. "Lewk" is another add, which is a way to highlight a specific "fit," perhaps as a joke, perhaps for real.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese actually used the word "delulu" during a speech in Parliament, where he said something was "delulu with no solulu." The word is also quite popular among teen girls.
"Inspo" is another, shortened from "inspiration," and it can be paired with any trend, such as "thinspo." Many of these new additions are not representative of definitions that were not part of the conversation, but are the cementing of concepts that have been around for a while.
Words that represent this genre are "work husband" or "work wife." Also in the realm of relationships are the concepts "red flag" or "green flag," used to describe traits or behaviors in a partner that are indicators of whether or not the partnership is worth pursuing.
The word "snackable" describes bite-sized content, popularized across all social media platforms that vie for the ever-shrinking human attention span. The word "technofossil" was added, meaning "an object that could remain on the Earth for a very long period after it has been thrown away and is likely to be found and studied by people in the future." Plastic is considered one of these.
"Fast tech" are objects that become "e-waste" while "digital decay" is the term for information loss online. Information stored solely online is in a fragile state, easily lost forever. The blog of the Cambridge Dictionary tracks the emergence of these words, many of which are combinations of previous words, which is much the way words are traditionally formed.
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