“We also have to make the final call, which is the only real executive decision - when to put it in, once it has been used by many people in many places.” “It’s a way of getting things started and allowing a word to grow,” Sokolowski said, clearly excited about what must be one of the fascinating rituals in the reference-book world. Instead, he finds five or six or maybe even 10 examples of that word, drafts a quick definition and enters it into a large shared document to be looked at when the team is considering words for new releases. If he gets excited about a new word, there is no great announcement to his colleagues. Sokolowski is part of a small team of about 25 people who work all day, every day on the dictionary. The word COVID-19 was added to the dictionary just 34 days after its coinage. When we say long-term and widespread use, there is no specific number, but there is a kind of critical mass that has to be accumulated.” “We always look for three basic criteria: widespread usage, long-term usage and meaningful usage. “This is a word that took its own sweet time getting into the dictionary, but it also shows that the process is the same for every word,” Merriam-Webster editor at large Peter Sokolowski said during a recent call. But fluffernutter was rejected for inclusion in 1980, and again in 1983, 19, before finally reaching dictionary word status this year. Over the years, more Merriam-Webster editors watched for its usage, considering the word for inclusion in upcoming editions of the dictionary. The word was added to that database in 1961 after an editor cited the word‘s use in an advertisement. Like all additions to this dictionary, fluffernutter started as a “citation,” a record of sorts that includes context and source, which is added to a searchable database. The 2021 word of the year is “vaccine,” preceded by “pandemic” in 2020, both testaments to a terrible era. New words often reflect the big stories of the year or notable changes in our culture. The Little Fish pop-up in Echo Park has been known to serve a fluffernutter for dessert.īut the word fluffernutter didn’t officially enter the Merriam-Webster dictionary until October, along with 455 other new words. In Los Angeles, you’ll find a deep-fried version with bananas at three of Antonia Lofaso’s restaurants (Black Market Liquor Bar, Dama and Scopa Italian Roots). While the sandwich is most popular in the New England area (it was invented in Massachusetts in the second decade of the 20th century), its influence and prevalence have spread throughout the country over the past century. If you’re from the Northeast, you may be familiar with the sweet “delicacy” known as fluffernutter. Fluffernutter: a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow crème between two slices of white sandwich bread.
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