‘Selfie’ ‘crowdfunding’ and turducken’ are among 150 new words added to the 2014 updated version of the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary; the company have announced this week.
The new additions to the U.S. English dictionary reflect numerous changes in technology, social media and popular culture.
The process of holding a smart-phone camera at arm’s length and snapping a quick shot for Instagram is now officially defined as a Selfie: “An image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera especially for posting on social networks”. Crowdfunding – brought to us by companies like Kickstarter and Indiegogo, is described as “the practice of soliciting financial contributions from a large number of people especially from the online community”.
