--- title: 7 New Dictionary Additions You Should Know description: The venerable Oxford English Dictionary just announced 1,000 new entries, and there are some real gems hidden in that long list canonical: https://time.com/2896978/new-dictionary-additions-7-useful-words-you-probably-dont-know/ author: Katy Steinmetz article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-06-19T01:18:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:30.542Z og:title: 7 New Dictionary Additions You Should Know og:description: The venerable Oxford English Dictionary just announced 1,000 new entries, and there are some real gems hidden in that long list og:url: https://time.com/2896978/new-dictionary-additions-7-useful-words-you-probably-dont-know/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cd6145df88baa98/6986983de53abafb8e4d33ca/dog-in-hat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2592 og:image:height: 1458 og:image:alt: 121841759 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 7 New Dictionary Additions You Should Know twitter:description: The venerable Oxford English Dictionary just announced 1,000 new entries, and there are some real gems hidden in that long list twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cd6145df88baa98/6986983de53abafb8e4d33ca/dog-in-hat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # New Dictionary Additions: 7 Useful Words You Probably Don't Know > Sponsored content. 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Justin Paget / Getty Images by [Katy Steinmetz](https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/) ## Katy Steinmetz Jun 19, 2014 1:18 AM UTC The Oxford English Dictionary, the toughest of linguistic bouncers, just announced the latest words that editors have let into da club. You [may have read](http://time.com/2870942/hashtag-oed-oxford-english-dictionary/) that _selfie_ and _hashtag_ are among the crew, but little attention was paid to the more than 1,000 other new terms now appearing for the first time in that historical reference. But don’t despair. We’ve slogged through the list, chucking the nap-inducing _cholestatics_ and _varioliforms,_ to find the gems. Here are 7 little-known terms that you could put to good use in daily life, along with the oldest usage that the OED editors could find. **bezzie (n., adj., 1865):** _a person’s most respectable_ _clothes._ This word should be appearing in rap songs constantly, and not just [to refer to](http://rapgenius.com/Lil-jon-grand-finale-lyrics) the yellow diamonds in the “bezzies” of rappers’ watches. The British also use _bezzie_ as an adjective to describe their favorite things or people, such as their “bezzie mates” or whiskers on kittens. **blobfish (n., 1974):** a_ny of several bottom-dwelling deep-sea fishes which have large heads, gelatinous flesh and a distinctive sagging face._ Why call someone “bottom-dweller” when you can call them a blobfish, which encompasses not only bottom-dwelling but having a big head, yucky flesh and a saggy face? Next time you get in a fight about spirit animals, you’ll be glad to have this one in your pocket. **bonus genius (n., 1606):** _a benevolent spirit imagined as accompanying a person throughout his or her life and exerting a good influence, and often paired with an opposed malevolent spirit._ In Latin, _bonus_ means good and _genius_ (like genie) refers to a supernatural being. So that little angel on your shoulder is a bonus genius, while the devil is a malus genius. **boss of bosses (n., 1880)**: _a person who has total control over a political party or similar organization; or_ _a person who runs every branch of the Mafia in a particular region_. Using this to refer to your own supervisor will not only please him or her by inflating their sense of importance but also imply that you are a boss (in the sense of cool, superior, awesome). And should your name be Bob, and should anyone ever make fun of that name, you can just tell them it’s an acronym. **conlang (n., 1991):** _a constructed language, one artificially created as opposed to naturally evolved._ A conlang could be Esperanto, the creation of a Polish physician that some want to see adopted as a universal language, rebuilding the Tower of Babel. A conlang might be Elvish from _Lord of the Rings_ or Dothraki from _Game of Thrones_. By [some counts](http://entertainment.time.com/2011/11/16/elvish-klingon-and-esperanto%E2%80%94why-do-we-love-to-invent-languages/), there are actually more conlangs than there are natural languages in the world. **cooty (adj., 1917):** _infested with lice_. If you are anywhere near my age, you may have grown up believing that the opposite sex was afflicted with imaginary yet dangerous “cooties,” and that to avoid infection one must have “cooty shots” administered regularly. That playground usage actually stems from birds. Certain diving and swimming birds were called coots back in the 1300s, and those birds got lots of parasites, and so people started calling other things with parasites “cooty.” **town lady (n., 1642):** _a prostitute._ This rare and more delicate term for a lady of the night is in the company of such titles as: aunt, bat, bulker, carry-knave, cat, charver, chippy, cocodette, cooler, Cyprian, doxy, fille de joie, guinea-hen, joro, ladybird, marmalade, mermaid, molly, musk cat, night-shade, punketto, quail, scupper, two-penny and yum-yum. _This is an edition of Wedndesday Words, a weekly feature on language. For the previous post,_ [_click here._](http://time.com/2820780/five-reasons-kids-should-still-learn-cursive-writing/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/2896978/new-dictionary-additions-7-useful-words-you-probably-dont-know/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/2896978/new-dictionary-additions-7-useful-words-you-probably-dont-know/"},"headline":"New Dictionary Additions: 7 Useful Words You Probably Don't Know","datePublished":"2014-06-19T01:18:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:30.542Z","description":"The venerable Oxford English Dictionary just announced 1,000 new entries, and there are some real gems hidden in that long list","url":"https://time.com/2896978/new-dictionary-additions-7-useful-words-you-probably-dont-know/","keywords":["Living","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cd6145df88baa98/6986983de53abafb8e4d33ca/dog-in-hat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katy Steinmetz","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/katy-steinmetz/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6cd6145df88baa98/6986983de53abafb8e4d33ca/dog-in-hat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"121841759","caption":"121841759","creditText":"Justin Paget / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/2896978/new-dictionary-additions-7-useful-words-you-probably-dont-know/","name":"New Dictionary Additions: 7 Useful Words You Probably Don't Know"}}]}] ```