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‘Selfie’ & ‘Catfish’ Added to Merriam-Webster Dictionary

The day you’ve been waiting for has finally arrived! You can officially find “catfish” and “selfie” in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.

Among the over 150 new words added to the 2014 Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary are such popular terms as “catfish,” “hashtag” and “selfie” — mirroring the rapidly growing influence of social media.

While “selfie” is an entirely new addition to the famous book, the concept of “catfish,” which stems from the popular documentary and MTV series of the same name, now accompanies its traditional definition of the not-so-pretty fish.



On the Merriam-Webster Dictionary website, Catfish creators Ariel Schulman, Henry Joost and Nev Schulman responded to the new addition.

“Never in a thousand years could we have imagined what a phenomenon Catfish would become,” they say in a joint statement, accompanied by pictures. “Seeing this new definition in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary is not only an honor for us, it is a reflection of how our experience in the film has now become a universal one, shared by people all over the world.”



Hi! I'm Sarah and I'm a senior at Penn State University majoring in Print Journalism with minors in English and Sociology. The only thing I love more than writing is cheese... and hot dogs... and Netflix... and boys who are good at winking. I am a huge John Mayer fan, I refuse to wear a bra if I don't have to, and I'm essentially an insomniac who takes sporadic naps. I am addicted to filling up my cart online shopping and then realizing I am a broke college student and closing out the page. My greatest talent in life is being able to say all 50 states in alphabetical in under 20 seconds... my parents are very proud of me, as you can imagine. Feel free to contact me at sarahdesiderio@hercampus.comOr hit me up on the Twitter-sphere https://twitter.com/DizzyyyDesi (sometimes I'm funny)