What words first came into use the year you were born? - Merriam Webster

[MerryHolidays]

Enter any year in the link below and see the words that were first used that year...Enjoy!

https://www.merriam-webster.com/time-traveler/

[bahboo]

1. that was fun...and enlightening....

surprised at how modern some of the words seemed for 1953.

[Thunderbeast]

2. Not buying it...

I just don't believe that the word "Golf" was a 1952 innovation.

[Leith]

3. It's hard to believe some of them

1958's entries include
hair spray
beatnik
game show
glitch
inner city
grounded
spray can
verbal auxiliary

It seems like they would have been in use before then.

[TwilightZone]

18. It's the year they entered the dictionary.

The title is a bit misleading. Golf, for example, has been in use for centuries.

[MerryHolidays]

20. Even that's not accurate...it's the first time the word was used in PRINT

rather than orally, based on what Merriam-Webster could find.

Here's the blurb from the help link to this:

Dates in the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary

At most entries in the Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, a date will be found following the heading "First Known Use". This is the date of the earliest recorded use in English, as far as it could be determined, of the oldest sense defined in the entry.

It is essential to keep a few factors in mind when assessing the First Known Use Date:

The date may not represent the very oldest sense of the word. Many obsolete, archaic, and uncommon senses have been excluded from this dictionary, and such senses have not been taken into consideration in determining the date.

The date most often does not mark the very first time that the word was used in English. Many words were in spoken use for decades or even longer before they passed into the written language. The date is for the earliest written or printed use that the editors have been able to discover.

The date is subject to change. Many of the dates provided will undoubtedly be updated as evidence of still earlier use emerges.
The First Known Use Date will appear in one of three styles:

For the Old English period (700-1099), "before 12th century"
For the Middle English period (1100-1499), by century (e.g., "14th century" )
For the Modern English period (1500-present), by year (for example, "1942" )

The rounding of earlier dates reflects the uncertain chronology of medieval manuscripts and the often conjectural nature of the composition dates of the texts they record. To convey impreciseness in a Modern English date, circa (Latin for "around" ) is appended. This is usually done for one of two reasons: the source's copyright page provides a date range rather than a specific year; or the word appears as an entry in a reference work, indicating that it had been in use before that work's publication date.

A few classes of main entries that are not complete words (such as abbreviations, prefixes, suffixes, and combining forms) or are not generic words (such as trademarks) are not given dates.

[TwilightZone]

24. It's not first known date for the word itself. It's the date for a specific usage.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/golf#h2

"First Known Use of golf

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Communications code word

1952, in the meaning defined above"

It's the first time it was used as a code word.

[MerryHolidays]

26. Feel free to challenge the verbatim text from MW's help link on this

I didn't write it. Perhaps they will change based on your points.

[PJMcK]

4. I'll play

Oddly, these words have somehow influenced my life!

Alternative Minimum Tax
Beatnik
Denuclearize
Game Show
Lou Gehrig's Disease
Nanosecond
Noncoital
Nuke
Q Rating
Sex Kitten (Not me, I'm a man)
Smart-ass (I love the dash!)
Tailgate Party
Tandoori

1958

[Gore1FL]

5. It's weird that there aren't any listed for 2019. nt

[keithbvadu2]

6. No 'antifa'?

[keithbvadu2]

8. My fellow old farts will find lots of words for their birth year.

My fellow old farts will find lots of words for their birth year.

If you find a good word, give credit to your birth for it.

[niyad]

7. An interesting list:

BLT
Brainwashing
Cardiac arrest
Capellini
Foggy Bottom
Garlic chive
LSD
Pap smear

Many others

[MerryHolidays]

11. I cannot imagine a world without BLT! nt

[niyad]

27. I know. Surely it was on diner menus??

[elleng]

9. ;-( A-bomb (I'm a senior; 1945)

across the board

anti-fungal

cold war

ESPRESSO! Finally something GOOD!

[Akoto]

10. Anime and Nintendo. Sounds about right for me. n/t

[happybird]

12. My favs of the lot:

Alternative Rock
Conspiracist
Fractal
Gender Bender
Jah
Leisure Suit
Pickleball (wtf is that??)
Subwoofer




ETA: Looked up pickleball. Sadly, it has nothing to do with pickles. It’s a game that sounds like a cross between badminton and paddleball.

[MerryHolidays]

13. Wrong question....

The right question is WT* is a "leisure suit'?

[happybird]

14. Nothing but cutting edge 70's men's fashion! Lol!

It’s worth a google to see the pics and have a laugh.
Think Larry on Three’s Company. Truly hideous.

[niyad]

28. A polyester fashion nightmare.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. Oh, my.

Milky Way galaxy was first used in my birth year, 1948. I hope My Son The Astronomer is impressed when I tell him this.

[d_r]

16. 1968 was a hell of year

abscisic acid
affinity chromatography
Alt key
application programming interface
art-rock
assault weapon
audibilize
baby boomlet
background radiation
back-of-the-envelope
Band-Aid
bank machine
bed-sharing
bells and whistles
benign prostatic hyperplasia
biocompatibility
bit rate
black-on-black
blind carbon copy
botanica
Brigadoonbute
butt naked
buy-incarbofuran
car seat
cash bar
cataphoric
cellulite
charbroil
Chinese chive
clunky
consciousness-raising
coronavirus
correction fluid
cryptozoology
dashiki
data mining
daunorubicin
deep-sky
dekametric
delegitimize
Denver boot
disbenefit
distributed
do-rag
double-A
drive-by
earthrise
EB virus
end effector
enshrineeentorhinal
Epstein-Barr virus
error bar
eyes only
false color
family leave
fanfic
flappable
fly-by-wire
Formosan termite
freeze-etching
Fu Manchu mustache
G2 phase
gaijin
gavel-to-gavel
geopressured
geosynchronous
green revolution
gross-out
Havanese
helo
HLA
homosocial
hybrid computer
impact printer
inbounds
industrial-strength
intermediate vector boson
jack stand
jazz-rock
kelvin
LED
light-emitting diode
light pollution
limoliposome
liquid crystal display
logocentrism
love beads
M16
magnetoencephalography
magnet school
Marburg virus
marginalize
mascon
mediascape
mega
megavitamin
melphalan
micrographics
minipill
minischool
mondo
morning breath
multilevel marketing
nanotesla
nitinol
noncharismatic
nonconfrontational
noncount noun
nondairy
noninvasive
non-rhoticnoogieno-till
OEM
olallieberry
orthomolecular
out-frontout-of-body
PCP
peace dividend
peace sign
peace symbol
penny loafer
people mover
perp
plateglass
plugged-in
poison dart frog
post-Holocaust
press kit
prewriting
printhead
prodrug
psychographics
pube
pulsar
radicchio
reggae
reuptake
rhotic
ridership
roach clip
rolf
Ruritan
safe sex
sanitary landfill
seitan
self-destruct
sentimo
shell steak
sick day
single malt
sleeper cell
smoosh
spatial summation
speak-out
squamate
squeaky-clean
sun protection factor
supergroup
superjock
SWAT
take-no-prisoners
talk radio
tanzanite
telemedicine
textured vegetable protein
thyrotropin-releasing hormone
T-notetoke
touchy-feely
tough love
trihalomethane
trippy
tubulin
unban
uncharismatic
underappreciated
underdrawing
unfussed-over
unplugged
untrendy
uplink
urban legend
vigvitrectomy
walking catfish
wall system
weak force
word processor
workfare
wrist wrestling
yippie
yo
z distribution

[TwilightZone]

17. To be slightly more accurate, it was the year they entered the dictionary.

Last edited Wed Apr 14, 2021, 10:59 PM - Edit history (1)

Many, such as "golf" (1952), had obviously been in use for much longer.

Edit: 1952 was the first time that "golf" was used as a code word for G. That's why it's listed as 1952.

"First Known Use of golf

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined above

Communications code word

1952, in the meaning defined above"

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/golf#h2

[MerryHolidays]

21. Not entirely....please see post 20

Nonetheless, I cannot fathom how the word "golf" wasn't used in print until 1952!

[TwilightZone]

23. No, that's not quite right, either.

1952 was when one specific definition of golf -- used as a code word for G -- was added to the dictionary.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/golf#h2

[MerryHolidays]

25. I'm saying what the eds of Merriam-Webster are saying

Perhaps if you want to challenge, raise it with them?

[StClone]

19. Reverse Polish Notation ?

[Quemado]

22. 1955 - artificial intelligence

big bang theory

spin the bottle

[Marthe48]

29. don't touch!

Put that down!


lol

[Talitha]

30. Interesting...

1952

deep space
global warming
junk food
rabbit ears
spacefaring
stoned
superhelix
tax shelter
Zika virus