One Of Your Favorite Fake Words From ‘The Simpsons’ Just Made It Into The Dictionary

Those showoffs over at the dictionary are at it again. Merriam-Webster just added 850 new words, so you put on a pot of coffee and I’ll start making the flashcards. Joining old favorites like “beetle,” “juice,” “clever,” and “writer,” are new additions like dumpster fire, subtweet, welp, and wordie, which literally means “word lover.”

As of now, the phrase “too-on-the-nose” has yet to be included.

Out the 850 new words, the new kid on the block that’s causing the most hullabaloo is a term made popular by an episode of The Simpsons: embiggens. The Season 7 episode “Lisa the Iconoclast” features the now famous scene in which Jebediah Springfield utters the phrase “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.” Upon hearing this, Mrs. Krabappel questions the validity of the word, which prompts her co-worker Ms. Hoover to defend “embiggens” by concocting her own fictitious word.

Mrs. Krabappel: Embiggens? I never heard that word before I moved to Springfield. 
Ms. Hoover: I don’t know why. It’s a perfectly cromulent word.

Here’s what really steams my hams. If you’re going to add a fake word to the dictionary, shouldn’t it be the much more popular term from the episode? The fact that cromulent has yet to receive an invitation to the Merriam-Webster dictionary party is mind-boggling. The MW website doesn’t help to clarify the situation.

“If you’re likely to encounter a word in the wild, whether in the news, a restaurant menu, a tech update, or a Twitter meme, that word belongs in the dictionary,” the website states.

Hmm. I can’t help but feel as though I heard that somewhere before.

Sure, embiggens, which officially means “to make bigger or more expansive,” joining Merriam-Webster is perfectly cromulent, but we can’t help but feel as though there were better alternatives.

At least Dictionary.com knows what’s up.

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