The Kojien dictionary, Japan’s most authoritative Japanese-language dictionary, published the seventh and latest version with 10,000 new words such as “hanii torappu” (honey trap), “biggu mausu” (big mouth) and “karēshū” (an old person’s distinctive smell).
Other new entries that made it to the list are:
- “apuri” – app
- “burakku kigyō” – exploitative firms with bad working conditions
- “Isuramu-koku” – Islamic State
- “LGBT” – as the English acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender
- “konkatsu” – marriage hunting
- “jidori” – selfie
- “diipu rāningu” – deep learning
These additions are derived after the editors collected 100,000 words and then reduced the number to 10,000. Kojien said they have excluded buzzwords they think will eventually go out of style and popularity. Some of the words that did not make the cut are:
- “arasā” – people around age 30
- “ganmi” – gaze at something without hesitation
- “yurukyara” – cute and soothing mascot characters
- “guguru” – searching on the internet
The seventh version of the dictionary has over 3,216 pages with 250,000 entries. The standard paper edition will cost ¥8,500 and the desktop edition is at ¥13,000. It will be in stores on January 12, 2018 with the hopes of selling 200,000 copies.
The first edition of Kojien was published in 1955 by Iwanami Shoten with about 200,000 words. It has then become a household reference as well as media outlets and high-profile organizations go-to dictionary when it comes to knowing the final and official definition of a word.
Sales had peaked in December 1983 with 2.6 million copies of the third edition was sold. However, numbers declined since then due to various free online dictionaries available online. In recent years, Kojien’s database has been in a number of electronic dictionaries and computer software.
Reference: ‘Honey trap’ and ‘selfie’ added to Japan’s Kojien dictionary
