Announcing Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary
A Lexicon of New Words Contributed by Visitors to Merriam-Webster OnLine

SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Nov. 16 /PRNewswire/ — Merriam-Webster OnLine (http://www.merriam-webster.com/), America’s premiere online language center is debuting another innovative feature. Merriam-Webster’s Open Dictionary is a real-time chronicle of new words and senses based entirely on contributions from its users.
Developed to provide a forum for word lovers to share words they haven’t yet seen in the dictionary, the new feature invites visitors to submit their lexical discoveries with definitions, example sentences, and documentation of words used in context. Though still in its development stages, the interactive Open Dictionary is already providing an informative and often amusing look at the latest words and phrases catching the attention of Merriam-Webster’s online community.
Some contributions to the Open Dictionary are words currently on the radar screen of Merriam-Webster’s editors. Take, for example, the entry phish — defined by a user as a verb to describe, “the sending of an e-mail which falsely claims to be from an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information.”
Equally topical are blame game (noun: “deflecting from your own guilt or culpability by blaming other people or circumstances that led to the situation”), fangirl/boy (noun: “a girl or boy that has an obsession with a person, place,%2