These Food-related Terms Can Now Be Found in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary

published Oct 29, 2021
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Year after year, Merriam-Webster surprises the world when they add a plethora of new words to the dictionary. Though there are usually hundreds of words chosen each year to nab a spot in the lineup, new words are only added based on their popularity and universal agreement that it means a specific thing. While 2020 saw words like “self-isolate” and “zonkey” find their way into the dictionary, Merriam-Webster recently announced that for this year, a new set of words and meanings would be joining them. And to be more specific, there would be 455 of them.

Though many of the new words continued to be pandemic-related like “vaccine passport,” “long COVID,” and “super-spreader,” others were linked to cooking, the kitchen, and picking up curbside delivery — the latter of which happens to be one of the new words.

A few of the words that are making us hungry and that are inspiring our next meals include “fluffernutter” — which is a sandwich that’s got plenty of peanut butter and marshmallow fluff spread between two pieces of bread — and  “horchata,” a sweet milk-like drink that’s flavored with cinnamon or vanilla, and the French baked wafer or cookie known as tuile.

“Street food,” albeit street vendors closing down their operations for part of the year, also found its way into Merriam-Webster’s 2021 inclusion and is now defined as “prepared food of a kind that is typically sold to customers on a street or sidewalk and that is often designed to be carried and eaten while walking.” Ghost kitchens (or cloud kitchens and dark kitchens as they are often called) — which have been a popular pandemic trend are noted to be a “commercial cooking facility used for the preparation of food consumed off of the premises — and are now officially a term too, according to Merriam-Webster.

One new addition that you may have thought to already be an official term, but has only now received the distinction of being added to the official word line-up is quite possibly one of your favorite appliances: an air fryer. Defined as “an airtight, usually small electrical appliance for quick cooking of foods by means of convection currents circulated rapidly by a fan,” the addition of the word to the dictionary just might be the sign you need to go pick one up if you don’t have one already.

There’s no telling what food and kitchen terms are going to be added next year, but for now, we’re ready to make a “fluffernutter” sandwich for lunch, and pick up dinner from our favorite ghost kitchen using curbside delivery.