​The Oxford Dictionary of English really, really, really wants to be cool. Its latest edition, out now, includes 200 new phrases, from chill pill to staycation and more! This is not the Oxford English Dictionary, by the way, which presumably would never deign to include "chillax" on its pages, but a dictionary "based on how language is used in everyday life," which is, perhaps, not a dictionary at all but a list of whatever the cool kids are saying. Unfortunately, the moment that the dictionary wonks find out what the cool kids are saying -- and then get around to putting it on paper -- the expressions are practically vintage. As you can see from the following selection of new words in the ODE:

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​Here's a new word, everybody! Let's all say it together: Plume. Doesn't that just roll off the tongue, all slick and oily? Despite what you might think, it doesn't mean the feather in a dapper man's cap, or a particularly French shade of plum. It's the latest in our ongoing explorations with BP etymology! Intrigued? Here's more.

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​Today is a special, special day, for the New York Times, for hipsters, and for this here blog, Runnin' Scared. Why? Because the New York Times' standards editor Phil Corbett put the smack down on Times writers using the word "hipster."

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​Do you know what a hipster is? I've lived in New York for four years, and Williamsburg for one year, and I still don't know what's in a hipster. However: Media outlets do. Or at least act like they do. Salon does, as evidenced by a piece of theirs making the rounds today called "Hipsters on Food Stamps." If you do know what a hipster is, that must make you hip, right?

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​Dude. Bro. BRAH: Did you know that in a recent Styles section piece, there's an article about converting Bachelor Pads to Adult Homes? Protect the Beirut Table at all costs. But it's time we snag some wifeys, yo. What's this gonna run us?

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