Future Generations Will Question Why These Words are Part of a Dictionary

Just like we go through the dictionary and wonder what some ancient words are for, future generations will wonder what we were doing when we "photobombed" someone.

“Photobomb,” “selfie,” “twerking” and “meme” are the latest additions to the print edition of the Collins English Dictionary.

According to the BBC, these terms are just a handful of the 50,000 new items that have been added to the dictionary’s 12th edition.

The latest additions -- which also include “vape,” “Bitcoin” and “adorkable” (which won a Twitter contest to get in, confusing the future generations even more -- not to mention the definition probably is just a photo of Zooey Deschenel) -- are said to bring the total number of entries in the Collins English Dictionary to 722,000, reportedly making it the largest single volume dictionary in print.

As the London Evening Standard notes, the Collins English Dictionary was last updated three years ago. Terms like “Zumba,” “Arab Spring” and “fauxmance” were among the new terms that made it into dictionary at the time.

"I think the dictionary is really showing how British culture is continuing to evolve,” Elaine Higgleton, then-publishing director for Collins English Dictionaries, told The Guardian in 2011. "There's quite a lot of vocabulary about past times, around fashion, celebrities, TV, culture and popular culture, but there's also the more serious stuff, such as Arab Spring and the ongoing financial situation. It shows what the concerns of society are at the moment."