This short article about Merriam-Webster's addition of 'genderqueer' to their dictionary is really useful for thinking about how language changes over time to describe our changing cultural worlds. According to the Hufftington Post, the dictionary'scommitment to adding new queer terms and language to the dictionary, and discussing them on social media, follows the evolution of culture.What does the emergence of new words tell us about our changing cultural world -- in this case about how we understand and express our gender and sexuality?
“The set of terms relating to gender and sexuality that we’ve added in recent years is like any other; as established members of the language ― we have evidence of these terms in published, edited text from a variety of sources and over an extended period of time ― they meet our criteria for entry,” Emily Brewster, Merriam-Webster Associate Editor, told The Huffington Post. “We would be remiss not to define them.”
Quick links and further reading:
- Merriam-Webster Has Become A Hilarious, Shade-Throwing LGBTQ Ally
- Other related posts on changing language and culture:
- The mutability of language (LOL!) (9 March 2016)
- How gender changes our jobs (24 October 2016)
- A historical view of a long heated debate: what could be more menacing than the singular "they"? (8 September 2016)
- Avoiding gendered bias... for instructors (25 May 2016)
- Indigenous languages and gender (10 March 2016)
- How does language shape our worldview? (17 October 2016)