Hugh: New Dictionary Additions Include Hellscape, Pinkwashing, and Trauma Dumping

Language is an ever-evolving thing and rightfully so, because the way people interact with each other today is obviously different than it was in previous years. New ideas become new words, and those new words get updated in the dictionary. Earlier this week, Dictionary.com added over 300 new words to its database, and it’s interesting to see what was included because it usually reflects what people are talking about in 2023. I’ve grabbed a few selections and put them below, so take a look and let us know if some of these are brand new to you.

• Hellscape: a place or time that is hopeless, unbearable, or irredeemable.
• Nearlywed: a person who lives with another in a life partnership, sometimes engaged with no planned wedding date, sometimes with no intention of ever marrying.
• Petfluencer: a person who gains a large following on social media by posting entertaining images or videos of their cat, dog, or other pet.
• Pinkwashing: an instance or practice of acknowledging and promoting the civil liberties of the LGBTQ+ community, but superficially, as a ploy to divert attention from allegiances and activities that are in fact hostile to such liberties.
• Rage farming: the tactic of intentionally provoking political opponents, typically by posting inflammatory content on social media, in order to elicit angry responses and thus high engagement or widespread exposure for the original poster.
• Superdodger: anyone who, for unverified reasons, remains uninfected or asymptomatic even after repeated exposure to a contagious virus.
• Talmbout: a phonetic spelling representing an African American Vernacular English pronunciation of talking about, used especially online.
• Trauma dumping: unsolicited, one-sided sharing of traumatic or intensely negative experiences or emotions in an inappropriate setting or with people who are unprepared for the interaction.