Wait... when did we start saying that? Weren't we just saying "Google that" to find information? Now we search ChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft Copilot, Google Scholar, Perplexity AI, Grok, Midjourney, ElevenLabs, Zapier AI, and Hugging Face.
Now they say "search it up." Apparently Google has become just one place to search. Somewhere between ChatGPT, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and who-knows-what-comes-next, the language quietly changed while I was busy figuring out my iPhone.
Now they say "search it up." Apparently Google has become just one place to search. Somewhere between ChatGPT, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and who-knows-what-comes-next, the language quietly changed while I was busy figuring out my iPhone.
An advantage to living with teenagers, I get to hear about new words and terms. Apparently only Boomers say "Google that". There are so many resources to check when looking for facts and information.
Interesting fact, we're moving from typing keywords to asking full questions. Instead of "Lake Oswego weather"
people increasingly type "Will I need a jacket for soccer tonight?"
Remember hard back dictionaries? Impossible in the 2020's. Our English language changes so much now that a printed book is out of date as soon as it is printed.
Interesting fact, we're moving from typing keywords to asking full questions. Instead of "Lake Oswego weather"
people increasingly type "Will I need a jacket for soccer tonight?"
Remember hard back dictionaries? Impossible in the 2020's. Our English language changes so much now that a printed book is out of date as soon as it is printed.
Online dictionaries add smaller groups regularly—sometimes hundreds or thousands—so we hear about each crop of terms such as doomscroll, rizz or cold brew. Merriam-Webster’s 2025 printed Collegiate edition, for example, added more than 5,000 words after a 22-year gap between major print revisions.
Words that felt new in the 1950s. Among the additions highlighted in accounts of Webster’s Third were:
astronautbeatnikdrip-dryMcCarthyismradiocarbonsolar housezip gun
Those words are practically a miniature history of the era: space travel, the Beat Generation, modern fabrics, politics, nuclear science, suburban innovation and juvenile crime.
Other expressions first recorded or popularized around the decade included:
rock-and-rollfast foodcredit carddo-it-yourselfartificial intelligencecomputerizefalloutbrainwashingtransistor radiobirth control pillsit-inget-go
Then: Editors gathered evidence for decades, published a massive new edition and announced 100,000 additions at once.
Now: Online dictionaries add smaller groups regularly—sometimes hundreds or thousands—so we hear about each crop of terms such as doomscroll, rizz or cold brew. Merriam-Webster’s 2025 printed Collegiate edition, for example, added more than 5,000 words after a 22-year gap between major print revisions.
As someone who's watched English evolve over seven decades, I have a perspective that younger people simply don't. They think "brain rot" has always been a phrase. I remember when TV remote, microwave, ATM, email, cell phone, blog, selfie, and now prompt didn't exist.
The English language isn't getting worse. It's just getting older along with us—and picking up new friends every decade.
And don't even get me started on the Urban Dictionary!! (Go take a peak)!
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