By Raymart Escopel
A DICTIONARY becomes our instant best friend if we are in need of clarity regarding a word you just stumbled upon. It provides accurate explanation to quench our thirsty curiosity.
Just like people and modern technology, dictionaries upgrade their content to jive with the popular culture. Just recently, Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary added a new set of words to its list because of the consistent use and application of the words in our everyday life.
What’s interesting is, the newly added words are derived from the language we use on our social networking sites. A group of words so common which eventually apply in our daily lives – with or without internet.
“Selfie,” “hashtag,” and “unfriend” are words that define a generation; a generation that surrounds the technology-savvy individuals.
A selfie is defined as a pose taken by one’s self. Hashtag on the other hand refers to a word preceded by a number sign; while unfriend is described as a term when deleting someone on our social media account’s friends’ list.
Here are the precise definitions presented by Meriam-Webster Dictionary:
- hashtag (noun): a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text (such as a tweet)
- selfie (noun): an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera especially for posting on social networks
- unfriend (v.t.) : to remove (someone) from a list of designated friends on a person’s social networking sites.
Technology has indeed shaped the modern times to evolve, especially in language. Coined due to playful and creative minds, the newly added words can now be legitimately used in both our real and virtual words./PN
