Kid: Yeet! This thing’s Laggy… Dude is Sus. Going Larping with street Fam!
Parent: Huh?
Merriam-Webster just added 370 new words and phrases to its dictionary, including one we’ve heard a lot the past month . . . “PUMPKIN SPICE.” Here are a few more worth mentioning . . .
1. Side hustle: work performed for income supplementary to one’s primary job
2. Metaverse: a persistent virtual environment that allows access to and interoperability of multiple individual virtual realities
3. Laggy: having a delayed or slow response
4. Space force: the military organization of a nation for space warfare
5. Yeet: slang used to express surprise, approval, or excited enthusiasm
6. Video doorbell: a small security camera that is designed for use on an exterior door
7. Magnet fishing: the sport or hobby of using a strong magnet attached to the end of a rope to find metal objects in bodies of water
8. Janky: of very poor quality
9. Sus: slang for suspicious or suspect
10. Subvariant: one of two or more distinctive forms or types of the same variant. (A few more pandemic words that got added are “supply chain,” “booster dose,” “false positive,” and “false negative.”)
11. LARP: It stands for live-action role-playing
12. Galentine’s Day: a holiday observed on February 13th as a time to celebrate friendships, especially among women
13. Plant-based: consisting primarily or entirely of food derived from plants
14. Baller: excellent, exciting, or extraordinary, especially in a way that’s suggestive of a lavish lifestyle
15. Adorkable: socially awkward or quirky in a way that is endearing.