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F-Bomb Recognised .


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New words make it into dictionary update

THE term F-bomb first surfaced in newspapers more than 20 years ago but is about to land for the first time in the mainstream Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, along with sexting, flexitarian, obesogenic, energy drink and life coach.

In all, the company picks about 100 additions for the 114-year-old dictionary's annual update, gathering evidence of usage over several years in everything from media to the labels of beer bottles and boxes of frozen food.

Many online dictionary and reference sites already list F-bomb and other entries Merriam-Webster is only now putting into print.

F-bomb is defined online as using the F-word at an inappropriate time or place.

The word "tweet" led last year's new-word highlights from Merriam-Webster. This year's additions are more eclectic, said Kory Stamper, an associate editor for Merriam-Webster.

"This is a list of really descriptive and evocative, fun words. Some years, not so fun. Some years it's a lot of science words. Some years it's a lot of words around really heavy topics," she said.

There are a few of those this time around: copernicium among them.

It's a short-lived, artificially produced radioactive element that has 112 protons and is the most recent addition to the Periodic Table of Elements. It was first created in a Germany in 1996 and named for the astronomer Copernicus.

The recession blues are represented.

Merriam-Webster added "systemic risk" and a new definition for "underwater," to describe the heartbreaking realisation that you owe more on your mortgage than your property is worth.

Among other new economic terms is an extra definition for "toxic", as it relates to an "asset that has lost so much value that it cannot be sold on the market."

Flexitarian, traced to 1998, is defined as "one whose normally meatless diet occasionally includes meat or fish," while obesogenic (dating to 1986) is an adjective for "promoting excessive weight gain: producing obesity."

Stamper calls flexitarian one in a long line of "you are what you eat" entries.

John Morse, president of the privately held company, wouldn't release a full list of new entries, in part to put off competitors.

"Let them find their own new words," he joked.

He allowed a sneak peak at the Top 25, rounded out by:

Craft beer, e-reader, game changer, a new definition for "gassed" as slang for drained of energy, gastropub, geocaching, shovel-ready (a construction site ready for work) and tipping point

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I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure the actual word F***K has been in the dictionary already. I know this from when I was in school and made to copy out full pages of the dictionary as punishment, I would always choose pages with bad words on them :)

This article means they are literally putting the term "F-bomb" into the dictionary.

"F-bomb is defined online as using the F-word at an inappropriate time or place." < taken from the artcile

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