Mar 9, 2020 3 min read

In 2019, 40 new words were added to the dictionary. Now you can confound your Scrabble friends with all of the new words and get away with it.

If you don’t know the difference between a gooey soumaintrain or a harder bargkass, you can consult your local “cheesemonger.” Cheesemonger has been added to the Merriam Webster dictionary. I would have assumed it was always in there, but someone waited until 2019 to make it official.

Side note: soumaintrain and bargkass are French cheeses. Soumaintrain is from the Burgundy region of France, and its soft and creamy. Bargkass is manufactured in the mountain villages of Alsace and Vosges, and basically means mountain cheese.

But I digress, like I do. The word “oche” has been added to the dictionary. An oche is the line you have to stand behind when you throw darts. I always just called it “the line you have to stand behind to throw darts.” I always step a foot over the oche when no one’s looking. I still lose.

“Page view” has entered the lexicon. It’s another way of saying “How many people have visited this website?” I am officially ahead of the times with this one. I have been worried about page views since I started this column nearly 10 YEARS AGO!

Someone call Jerry Seinfeld because the “double-dip” has made its way into the dictionary. A double-dip is when some obnoxious person takes a chip, dips, bites and dips again. To quote the show, “It’s like putting your whole mouth in the dip, man!” Try to load all the guac you can on the first bite and don’t go back, or, better yet, apply vigorously with a spoon.

The word steak has been in the dictionary for a long while, but now, for the very first time, it can reference a non-meat. Cauliflowers can be steaks now. Portobello mushrooms can be steaks. I’m sure there are a bunch of cows sighing in relief.

“Bottle episode” is a new phrase. It’s the term for a TV show that can be made cheaply by using established sets. When the friends stay in Central Perk, or Kirk and Spock stay on the Enterprise, it’s considered a “bottle episode.”

If things are stacking up in your basement, fret not. The term “hoarding disorder” is official now. Your inability to throw away old issues of the Observer-Reporter is now an actual psychological condition.

P.S. If you do throw the newspapers out, be sure to clip and save my column first!

Also, EGOT is a thing now. An EGOT is when someone wins an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony. You can count Rita Moreno, Audrey Hepburn, Mel Brooks, Marvin Hamlisch and Whoopi Goldberg as EGOTs.

If you’re at the gym getting “swole,” you can do it without remorse of using a silly word.

My favorite new word is “buzzy.” When something is super-popular, like a new restaurant, bar or television show, it’s considered buzzy.

My childhood nickname is in the dictionary.