New Dictionary Words Include ‘Finna,’ ‘Chile,’ And Others From ‘African American Vernacular’
Dictionary.com has added a crop of new words to its website. Per CNN, the new update includes a specific focus on race, social justice, identity, and COVID-19’s effect on our culture.
The outlet writes, “In the latest batch added to Dictionary.com, the online dictionary has included multiple African American Vernacular English words such as ‘finna’ and ‘chile.'” Other words added include BIPOC, Zoom, antiracism, superspreader, unmute, and reparation.
In total, there are 450 new words, 7,600 updated entries, and 94 new definitions of existing words.
In a statement, the managing editor at Dictionary.com said, “We have added such terms as BIPOC, Critical Race Theory, and overpolice, which have risen to the top of the national discourse on social justice. Another significant decision was to remove the noun slave when referring to people, instead using the adjective enslaved or referring to the institution of slavery. This is part of our ongoing efforts to ensure we represent people on Dictionary.com with due dignity and humanity.”
CNN also included some of the new definitions that will accompany these new words. For “finna,” they wrote, “A phonetic spelling representing the African American Vernacular English variant of fixing to, a phrase commonly used in Southern U.S. dialects to mark the immediate future while indicating preparation or planning already in progress.”
The definition for “chile” will be “A phonetic spelling of child, representing dialectal speech of the Southern United States or African American Vernacular English.”
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