“Skibidi”, “Tradwife” and other argot terms popularized on social networks are among the thousands of new words to add to the Dictionary Cambridge this year.
Skibidi is a term of Charabia invented by the creator of a viral animated video series on Youtube, while Tradwife is a shortening of the “traditional woman” – a married mother who cooks, cleanses and publishes on social networks.
More than 6,000 new words are included, including those relating to the giants of work and technology remotely.
“Internet culture changes the English language and the effect is fascinating to observe and capture in the dictionary,” said Colin McIntosh, lexical program manager.
Skibidi is defined in the dictionary as “a word that can have different meanings such as” cool “or” bad “, or can be used without real meaning as a joke”. An example of its use is “What are skibidi do you do?”
The reality star, Kim Kardashian, revealed her familiarity with the sentence when she published a video on Instagram showing a collar engraved with “Skibidi toilet” – The name of the YouTube series.
In addition to new sentences, certain shortened versions of existing terms have been added, in particular “Delulu” – a game on the word “delusional”, with a similar definition: “believe things that are not real or true, generally because you choose”.
An increase in remote work since the pandemic saw “Mouse Jiggler” – a device or software used to give the impression that you work when you are not – acquire its place in the dictionary.
Certain composite terms such as “Broligarchy” have also been added. Merge “Bro” and “oligarchy”, it means “a small group of men, in particular men with or involved in a technological enterprise, which are extremely rich and powerful, and who have or want a political influence”.
It was used to describe the heads of technology Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg who attended the inauguration of Donald Trump in January.
