Poutine is So Hot it Made the Dictionary

The latest - and eleventh - edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary contains "over 150 new words and definitions." As the Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. company declared in a press release yesterday, many of the new terms "reflect the growing influence technology is having on human endeavor." To wit, words like crowdfunding, big data, gamification, tweep, selfie and hashtag all made the 2014 cut.

A bumper crop of food terms, long part of the common lexicon, also won Merriam-Webster's approval. As such, you can now look up words like turducken ("a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey"), pho ("a soup made of beef or chicken broth and rice noodles") and freegan ("an activist who scavenges for free food").

And poutine. Yes, the staple junk food export from la belle province has made it to the dictionary (some will justly dispute the origin date of 1982, however).

For now, you can find poutine ("a dish of French fries covered with brown gravy and cheese curds") in the new Merriam-Webster's between Pouteria and poutingly.

· A Sample of New Dictionary Words for 2014 [Merriam-Webster]
· Merriam-Webster Adds Turducken, Pho, and Poutine [-EN-]
· All Poutine Coverage [-EMTL-]