{"id":36124,"date":"2024-01-12T01:47:00","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T01:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=36124"},"modified":"2024-01-29T18:28:29","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T18:28:29","slug":"thirst-trap-and-edgelord-were-recently-added-to-the-dictionary-so-why-hasnt-nibling-made-the-cut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/thirst-trap-and-edgelord-were-recently-added-to-the-dictionary-so-why-hasnt-nibling-made-the-cut\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Thirst trap\u2019 and \u2018edgelord\u2019 were recently added to the dictionary \u2013 so why hasn\u2019t \u2018nibling\u2019 made the\u00a0cut?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Roger J. Kreuz<\/a>, University of Memphis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A student in my graduate seminar recently mentioned seeing her \u201cniblings\u201d at Thanksgiving. Some of the students in my class were clearly familiar with the term. But others frowned, suggesting that they hadn\u2019t heard the term before, or didn\u2019t know what it meant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A nibling is the child of one\u2019s brothers or sisters. The word is a blend of the \u201cn\u201d in \u201cniece\u201d and \u201cnephew\u201d with \u201csibling,\u201d and it was coined in the early 1950s<\/a> by linguist Samuel Martin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even though it\u2019s been around for over 70 years, the word isn\u2019t included<\/a> in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most recent crop<\/a> of terms added to the dictionary includes words like edgelord<\/a> \u2013 a person who makes provocative statements online \u2013 and thirst trap<\/a>, which is an online photo that\u2019s meant to grab attention. Edgelord was first recorded in 2015, and thirst trap dates from 2011.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So why have these newbie words made the cut? Why have they been chosen for inclusion, but not nibling?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In making such decisions, the dictionary\u2019s editors note that they employ two criteria<\/a>. First, a term \u201cmust be used in a substantial number of citations that come from a wide range of publications.\u201d Second, these citations need to cover \u201ca considerable period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there may be another litmus test that the editors employ, perhaps subconsciously: aesthetics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Blended words<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Many new terms are a blend of two words that already exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these mashups are now so familiar that they aren\u2019t even perceived as such, such as smog<\/a>, a combination of \u201csmoke\u201d and \u201cfog,\u201d and motel<\/a>, a union of \u201cmotor\u201d and \u201chotel.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dictionary editors are conservative because they want to enshrine just the new words that remain reasonably popular and that are likely to have some staying power. But dictionaries are full of terms that have fallen out of use. When is the last time you heard someone refer to a houppelande<\/a> or a blatherskite<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editors have chosen to exclude some terms despite the fact that they have been around for a long time. Nibling<\/a> is one, and antidisestablishmentarianism<\/a> is another, even though the latter was first used over a century ago, in 1900<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after 70 years in the shadows, nibling may finally be having its moment. In 2020, Jennifer Lopez used it in an Instagram post<\/a> to refer to her sister\u2019s transgender child. Her post was viewed over 2 million times<\/a>. The term was also used in the sixth season of the TV show \u201cYoung Sheldon<\/a>\u201d to refer to the title character\u2019s unborn niece or nephew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, nibling has never graced<\/a> the pages of The New York Times, and it\u2019s appeared just twice<\/a> in The Washington Post, in articles from late 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The importance of aesthetics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With English speakers becoming more comfortable with gender-neutral terms, such as the singular \u201cthey<\/a>,\u201d nibling seems like a natural addition to English\u2019s gender-neutral lexicon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it seems that, in addition to utility and widespread use, a third factor plays a role: aesthetic quality. Nibling simply sounds off-putting, too similar to \u201cnibbling\u201d \u2013 and not exactly something that you want to associate with family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2021 Daily Mail article<\/a> agreed, calling nibling \u201cskin crawling and awkward.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And consider the case of Latinx, a word that was coined to be gender-neutral and inclusive. Although it has appeared in Merriam-Webster since 2018, it may end up going the way of an expression like \u201ccolored<\/a>,\u201d a term that was once \u201ca term of racial pride<\/a>,\u201d according to the Oxford English Dictionary, but which is now considered offensive and has fallen out of use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter how useful Latinx may be, the term is widely disliked<\/a> in the Hispanic community. A major reason seems to be the word\u2019s lack of aesthetics. One Latina interviewed by Billboard described it as sounding \u201cugly<\/a>,\u201d and people can\u2019t seem to agree on how to pronounce it<\/a>. The more pronounceable Latine<\/a> has been proposed as an alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPhablet\u201d not fabulous?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Aesthetics may also help explain why some other blended words, such as phablet<\/a>, a fusion of phone and tablet, have failed to catch on. A term for large cellphones, it\u2019s been in use since at least 2010<\/a>, although it doesn\u2019t currently appear in Merriam-Webster\u2019s word list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Phablet made its first appearance<\/a> in The New York Times in 2013 and was set off by quotation marks \u2013 a standard way of demarcating a new term. In its last appearance<\/a>, excluding in puzzles, in that newspaper in 2019, it was still bracketed by quotation marks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why did it fail to catch on?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a 2013 article<\/a>, The Atlantic characterized phablet as \u201chorrible,\u201d \u201cstupid\u201d and \u201cclumsy.\u201d The piece suggested that it reminded people of words like \u201cflab\u201d and \u201cphlegm.\u201d Usage data compiled by Oxford English Dictionary editors indicates that phablet peaked in popularity<\/a> in 2018 and has been dropping ever since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Utility versus aesthetics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, however, utility has clearly trumped aesthetics. The initialism LGBT, which is clunky to say, has been used since at least 1992 and has appeared in almost 6,000 articles<\/a> in The New York Times since 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LGBT has sprouted a number of more inclusive variants<\/a>, such as LGBTQ, LGBTQ+ and LGBTQIA, which makes it difficult to know which one to use<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
\u2018LGBTQ,\u2019 even as an ever-evolving mouthful, has caught on. Annette Riedl\/Picture Alliance via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, these ungainly initialisms remain popular, despite their awkwardness, because they clearly fill a need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will nibling go the way of phablet, or will it become as common as LGBTQ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merriam-Webster\u2019s editors have nibling on their list of words they are watching<\/a>. But it remains to be seen whether a useful but awkward blend will appeal to a more inclusive world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roger J. Kreuz<\/a>, Associate Dean and Professor of Psychology, University of Memphis<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roger J. Kreuz, University of Memphis A student in my graduate seminar recently mentioned seeing her \u201cniblings\u201d at Thanksgiving. Some of the students in my class were clearly familiar with the term. But others frowned, suggesting that they hadn\u2019t heard the term before, or didn\u2019t know what it meant. A nibling is the child of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":36125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[6884,3006,4752,149,8445,2755,15064,15063],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36124"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36301,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36124\/revisions\/36301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}