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In yet another sign of our era’s communications revolution, social media has found a home in this year’s update of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary, giving word watchers everywhere something to tweet about.  Social media and tweet are just two of over 150 new words and definitions that have been added to America’s best-selling dictionary in 2011, available now in print and online at Merriam-Webster.com.

“From the dramatic events of the Arab Spring to the scandal that brought down Congressman Anthony Weiner, tweet is a word that has been part of the story,” says Peter Sokolowski, Merriam-Webster’s Editor at Large.  “We’ve been tracking words likesocial media and tweet for years, of course, and now we feel their meanings have stabilized enough to include them in the dictionary.”

Tweet and social media join other technology-related terms including crowdsourcing (the practice of obtaining information from a large group of people who contribute online) and m-commerce (“a business transaction conducted using a mobile electronic device”).

Pop culture brings us bromance (“a close nonsexual friendship between men”) and cougar (“a middle-aged woman seeking a romantic relationship with a younger man”), a word whose usage was bolstered by Courteney Cox’s hit TV series Cougar Town.

For a sample blend of the latest Collegiate Dictionary entries—and their definitions—please visit http://www.merriam-webster.com/info/newwords11.htm.

Sursa: Merriam-Webster Inc.