Throwing Shade is Now an Entry in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary has added a whole bevy of new entries, and some of them are very necessary terms in this day and age.

How does one define microaggression? How about side-eye or food insecure? What about explaining the principles of throwing shade to someone? Clearly, Merriam-Webster has seen a need for these sorts of things, and they have stepped in to correct this issue. (We tip our hats to Entertainment Weekly for the find.)

Speaking of throwing shade, check out the entry:

"US slang:  to express contempt or disrespect for someone publicly especially by subtle or indirect insults or criticisms"

It is a dictionary definition, but it does get the point across quite clearly. The public aspect does really matter.

However, the dictionary now has over 1,000 entries, primarily from American slang and sports jargon. For example, hockey fans now have a way to explain five-hole that doesn’t involve gesturing at a goalie’s pants on the screen. Merriam-Webster also lists ginger among its words with a new definition, and naturally had a timely GIF on Twitter.

The fact that someone who runs the Merriam-Webster Twitter account either watches Riverdale or is on Twitter enough to know about it is honestly about as hilarious as the fact that throwing shade is now in the dictionary.

But the timely use of GIFs does not stop there:

Or there, because GIPHY actually started making GIFs for them to use:

Also, face-palm and facepalm are both in the dictionary now too, by the way.

On a slightly more serious notes, words like pareidolia and microbiome have also made their way into the dictionary.

Next: The New Books Roundup, Feb. 7

Now, however, when pedants point out that slang doesn’t count as proper English, you can point them to Merriam-Webster, which is pretty satisfying.