Merriam-Webster has added new words to its free online database and Collegiate Dictionary. The company announced an addition of 150 new words on Monday.
Among the new words is “Yoopers,” which is the term used to describe those who live in Michigan's Upper Peninsula region. Steve Parks from Delta County, Michigan celebrated the victory after trying to get it added for over ten years.
“People up here, we really do have our own identity and our own culture. We're a really hardy bunch. We love the land, we love the lakes, we love hunting, we love fishing. You have to be very resilient to live up here,” he said on Friday, Seattle Times reports.
Other words added are selfie, hashtag, turducken, tweep, e-waste, fracking and freegan, CBS News reports.
Merriam-Webster’s editor at large, Peter Sokolowski, said of freegan – which is someone who gets food from the trash bins in stores or restaurants – “It's a young word, from 2006. It's one of the youngest in this list. This kind of environmentalism was a Lone Ranger type of activity before but has taken off.”