‘Merica, YOLO, squee are the newest words in the Oxford English Dictionary

About 1200 words made their debut in the Oxford English Dictionary Monday, from the humorous truncation of America and acronyms like YOLO to several words meant to honor the British author Roald Dahl.

" ‘Merica," which the dictionary notes is "now frequently also in ironic or self-conscious use," now has a definition in the dictionary alongside the original term, and the "you only live once" acronym is now definable in the same pages as "FOMO," or "fear of missing out."

The dictionary, which updates every three months with new words in the English language, relies on a team of researchers to determine which words that enter common parlance, The Guardian reported.

The "new words" team, which employs fifteen people, often waits several years before adding a word but occasionally lets entries in early, senior assistant editor Jonathan Dent told the newspaper. The chemcial element livermorium, though it was recently named, was one of the words included in this month’s dictionary update.

The new updates also honored author Roald Dahl, given his birth 100 years ago Tuesday. The September rollout included several words used and popularized by Dahl, from "gremlin," which was the subject of one of his books, to "splendiferous." The dictionary’s newest entires could also be described by another new entry: "Dahlesque," or "resembling or characteristic of the works of Roald Dahl."

Several of the words added or updated were commonplace: "cough syrup," for example, now shares space in the dictionary with "chargrilled."

Others were more far-flung — new food entries, in particular, featured "Bocconcini," which are mozzarella balls but can also refer to any small food item, the Malaysian or Indonesian rice noodle dish "rendang," and the Filipino "kare-kare," for those craving the oxtail stew.

The Greek "spanakopita" was also baked into the dictionary in the new rollout, ensuring people will identify the pastry filled with spinach and cheese.

Other new words in the Oxford English Dictionary include cheese eater ("a person who eats cheese; a person who appreciates or routinely consumes cheese"), clicktivism ("the practice of signaling support for a political or social cause by means of the Internet"), fuhgeddaboudit ("forget about it"; "used to indicate that a suggested scenario is unlikely or undesirable") and gender-fluid ("designating a person who does not identify with a single fixed gender").

This story was originally published September 12, 2016 at 11:05 AM with the headline "‘Merica, YOLO, squee are the newest words in the Oxford English Dictionary."