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When you were a kid, did you ever make up a new word? Or maybe even a whole new language to whisper with your friends?

When imagination runs wild, especially in younger kids, they can come up with all sorts of new words to describe different things. It’s a fun way to play around.

I don’t personally remember making up any words when I was a child, though I do remember a brief stint in middle school where I tried to create a whole new writing system, so I could write secret messages to myself. After a few weeks, however, I abandoned it because I made it too complicated to memorize (and I didn’t have enough patience to commit). But I still have the notebook where I jotted down all the symbols, and I think of it fondly on occasion when I stumble across it.

Do you ever wonder how new words get added to our language? After all, English has changed a lot over time. Our ancestors in the 1600s, for example, were not talking about computers and cellphones back in those days.

There’s no official committee who sits down and approves new words. There’s no group who gets together and says “we need a word for this new thing. Any suggestions?”

Generally, people just come up with the words and phrases they need or like, and if it catches on with enough people in a wide enough area and it’s understood by most everyone, then it joins the millions and millions of other words our language has already collected.

It just happens!

Like I said, there’s no official committee, but plenty of people consider dictionaries to be somewhat of an authority over what “counts.” You could say that getting added to the dictionary is perhaps the pinnacle of existence for a word itself.

I say all this because recently the Merriam-Webster dictionary added 200 words and phrases to its collection, and I was surprised by some of the words on the list. Many are familiar terms I would have thought were already included, while some are newer words I’ve only just begun to hear used more often in conversation or on social media.

But as they pointed out in the press release, the new additions “have demonstrated widespread use over time, and offer a window into the world today.” So it makes sense that Merriam-Webster would wait a bit to see if these new words are sticking around or if they’re just a passing fad. (So if you made up a cool new word, you’d probably have to wait for more than just you and your friends to use it. You’ve got to get it to catch on with a lot of people!)

“Our lexicographers monitor a huge range of sources to select which words and definitions to add,” said Peter Sokolowski, Editor at Large for Merriam-Webster. “From academic journals to social media, these give us a very thorough view of the English language.”

Here are a few of the words and phrases that are now officially included in the Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Freestyle – “an improvised performance especially of a rap”

This word already has other definitions too which were included beforehand, such as the name for a certain kind of swimming competition. But this is the first time they’ve added the musical association with rap. As a fun bit of trivia, the first known use of the word was all the way back in 1913. As you can see, definitions can change and be added over time.

True crime – “a nonfiction genre of literature, film, podcasts, etc. that depicts and examines real crime cases”

These kinds of shows and books have been popular for years, so I was actually very surprised it hadn’t already been added.

Ultra-processed – “containing or made primarily with highly processed ingredients including artificial additives (such as coloring, flavoring, and preservatives) and typically having high levels of fat, sugar, or salt”

As the definition suggests, these are the foods in the grocery stores with long ingredients labels full of unpronounceable words. Though Merriam-Webster says the first known use of this word was actually in 1932, I personally had never heard the word until just a few months ago. (I had been reading an NPR article about potential health impacts of ultra-processed foods.)

That just goes to show how one person’s experience with a word does not indicate the same for everyone else!

Touch grass – “to participate in normal activities in the real world especially as opposed to online experiences and interactions”

This is an idiom that I’ve seen thrown around a lot if you spend too much time on social media getting worked up about stuff. If you’re feeling disconnected from reality, someone might tell you to put your phone down, go outside, and “touch grass.”

Perhaps its no surprise that the first known use of this word was in 2016. Social media really does dominate a lot of people’s free time these days, doesn’t it?

The list of Merriam-Webster’s new additions just goes on and on. Some of us may have been using these “new” words for a while and didn’t even know it.

Gregory Barlow, President of Merriam-Webster, said in the announcement, “The one constant of a vibrant living language is change. We continuously encounter new ways of describing the world around us, and the dictionary is a record of those changes.”

I think that just about sums it all up!

Holly Taylor is a Staff Writer for Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact her at holly.taylor@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7206.