ADVERTISEMENT The Cambridge Dictionary is adding more than 6,000 new terms to its lexicon this year, with many of them reflecting societal changes and the influence of internet culture.
New entries this year in the world’s largest online dictionary include popular social media slang like “skibidi”, “delulu” and “tradwife”.
The new selection of words highlights to what extent internet culture and TikTok’s influence on the English language is far from a fad…
“Internet culture is changing the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,” said Cambridge Dictionary lexical programme manager Colin McIntosh.
He added: “It’s not every day you get to see words like ‘skibidi’ and ‘delulu’ make their way into the Cambridge Dictionary. We only add words where we think they’ll have staying power.”
Here are five of the key new additions:
“Skibidi”
A word with varying meanings, both good and bad, originating from a viral YouTube series called Skibidi Toilet – about toilets with human heads sticking out of the bowl.
Yep. This is where we’re at.
The Cambridge Dictionary says that it can be used “with no real meaning as a joke”. For example: ‘What the skibidi are you doing?’
The word gained further popularity when Kim Kardashian’s daughter North West gave her mother a necklace featuring the word. Charming.
“Delulu”
From the word “delusional”.
The term has its origins in K-pop communities where it is used to refer to individuals who are in a parasocial relationship with celebrities and have hopes of meeting them someday. It is also associated with post-truth, as in when a person’s beliefs are more important than reality.
The dictionary entry defines it as “believing things that are not real or true, usually because you choose to”.
Euronews Culture wrote about the word and its emergence on TikTok, as a term adopted by Gen Z (“delulu is the solulu”) for manifesting what you want out of life. You can read all about it here.
The phrase “delulu is the solulu” was used earlier this year by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to attack his opponents in parliament.
“Tradwife”
Short for “traditional wife”.
The word describes a stay-at-home married woman, and its popularity online has been widely criticised as the word refers to socially conservative influencers who celebrate traditional gender roles.
One of the most famous examples is American Hannah Needleman, who has more than 10 million followers and has been called “the queen of tradwifery”. You can read more about the controversial phenomenon here.
“Lewk”
A version of the word “look”.
Popularised by the show RuPaul’s Drag Race, it means a distinctive style or outfit, especially one that is impressive.
“Broligarchy”
A merging of “bro” and “oligarchy”, referring to a powerful group of men in technology.
The dictionary defines the word as “a small group of men, especially men owning or involved in a technology business, who are extremely rich and powerful, and who have or want political influence”. It has been used to described the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg – who all attended Donald Trump’s inauguration in January.
In case you were still wondering, it’s not used as a positive term.
