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Now, You Can Find Out Which Words Debuted In Your Year Of Birth

Nick Levine
28 October 2018, 10:15
Photo: Getty Images / Pgiam.
One of the joys of language is the way it's constantly evolving. Take the word "queer": once a synonym for "weird" or "unusual", it became a slur aimed at gay people in the late-19th century, before recently being reclaimed by the LGBTQ community as an empowering and flexible way to describe identity.
So, just as Gemma Collins is a massive fan of the dictionary, so are we. And the new "time traveler" tool launched this week by online dictionary Merriam-Webster is honestly a lot of fun. It's really simple to use: you just select your year of birth, then Merriam-Webster tells you which words first appeared in print during that year.
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Photo: Merriam-Webster
A search for 1987, for example, reveals that words debuting that year included "boy band", "cringey", "tankini", "deets" and "thirtysomething" – the latter will feel all too real to anyone born in that year, because they've all said goodbye to their twenties pretty recently.
But back in 1983, people were already being introduced to words including "guac", "onesie", "piehole" and "bae"– yes, "bae" has been a thing for 35 years now.
However, it wasn't until 1993 that words including "website", "woo-woo", "PDA", "cybersex" and "heteronormative" first appeared in print.
Oh, and though it's presumably existed since public transport was invented, Merriam Webster's tool confirms that the word "manspreading" didn't appear in print until 2014.
People on Twitter have been sharing the funny, surprising and in some cases slightly depressing words that originated during their year of birth. Check out a selection of their tweets below.
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