The French Academy unveiled the new edition of its dictionary on Thursday November 14. No less than 21,000 words appeared, sparking contrasting reactions.
The fourth and final volume of the 9th edition of the dictionary of the French Academy was released on November 13, 2024. In total, the work now offers “53,000 words, including approximately 21,000 new words compared to the previous edition of 1935”. The French Academy aims to be the “mirror of an era which runs from 1950 to the present day and of its scientific, technical, social and cultural developments”. Among the new entries, several words taken from slang: “rififi”, “zonzon”, “Saint-glinglin”. Others come from foreign languages like “risotto”, “top model” or even “sashimi”.
The “names of professions, functions, ranks and titles” are also feminized. The integration of terms such as radiotoxicity, retinopathy, spin, tabulator, thermonuclear or xenograft also reflects “the considerable place taken by science and technology in our daily world”.
Wokism” invites itself in the dictionary
Volume 4 also “reports the social and cultural transformations that our era is experiencing” with the addition of words such as “telework“, “trek“, “transsexual“, “video protection“or again”zadist“. The term “wokism” is defined as a “current of thought born in the United States in the 2000s, which advocates raising awareness of the inequalities structuring Western societies. “The introduction of words like rugby, tabla or yuzu underlines the predominant place taken today by sport in our society as well as the influence of the arts and culinary practices belonging to varied geographical areas“, explains the French Academy.