Welcome additions?

New words I've learned...
I was engaged in a game of Scrabble the other day when my opponent placed the letters B-I-Z on the board and declared that this is a word. "That's ridiculous!" I shouted, grabbing the dictionary indignantly. "I am challenging your word," I said, confident that this was some sort of unofficial slang word.
I lost my next turn. According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, "biz" is, in fact, a word. There are many unwelcome little words which have popped up in the latest dictionaries lately. Here are a few I've discovered.
gabfest: (n) an informal gathering for general talk.
jag: (v) prick, stab; cut indentations into.
just-folks: (adj) marked by the absence of formality or sophistication.
biz: (n) business.
What do you think of these odd little slang words that have made their way into the dictionary? Are they welcome additions, signs of the evolution of our language, or just unpleasant-sounding slang terms that do not deserve acknowledgment?

1 comment:

J.G. said...

I guess this is how language grows and develops. I just don't like taking shortcuts where words are concerned, but I guess it is inevitable. Actually, I do it too, at times. I have a tendency to use "info" instead of "information." (By the way, yes, I did just comment on my own blog. It was an afterthought:)