Dave Ross, Rachel Belle on how ‘fluffernutter’ made it into the dictionary
Nov 10, 2021, 1:04 PM
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is not holding a fluffernutter in this photo, but he is holding a peanut butter and honey sandwich. (File photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(File photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Fluffernutter is now in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
But what exactly is a fluffernutter? It’s a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow fluff, of course.
While the word — and the sandwich — have been around for a while, it was added to the dictionary recently because the word has reentered the zeitgeist.
“We watch to see is this word’s use growing or is it falling. If the word is growing, even incrementally, even slowly, like fluffernutter, it belongs in the dictionary,” said the editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster in Massachusetts.
KIRO Radio’s Rachel Belle wonders if it was the COVID-19 pandemic that had fluffernutter pop up more, perhaps as people turned to comfort food? But the world may never know the real reason.
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Other words added to the dictionary this year include: vaccine passport, super-spreader, dad bod, air fryer, ghost kitchen, and fourth trimester. The word “because” also made it in, but with a different definition.
“You would say something like, ‘Yeah, we couldn’t go on vacation this year because COVID,'” Rachel explained.
“I’ve turned into a jerk because internet,” Seattle’s Morning News host Dave Ross gave as an example.
For any word nerds out there who want to be annoyed, “amirite” also made it in.
“I am so angry, Dave, I am so angry,” Rachel said.
Listen to Seattle’s Morning News weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.
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