Publisher Merriam-Webster Considering Adding "Metal" As An Adjective To The Dictionary
January 23, 2018, 6 years ago
According to Brooklyn Vegan, the dictionary publisher Merraim-Webster is looking into updating the definition of "metal" to include it as an adjective, as in "that's so metal." The word was added to their Words We’re Watching list, where they discuss words that have been increasing in usage and are candidates for addition to the dictionary. The addition would be metal’s adjective form: “the upstart metal descriptor evokes the powerful energy and dark themes of heavy metal music, communicating toughness, intensity, and general, er, badassery,” a usage, according to Merriam-Webster, that dates back to the early 2000s.
From Merriam-Webster:
"Metal has been a noun in good standing since the 13th century, and has been used attributively for most of that time, but as these examples show, these days it's acting like a full-on adjective. And you can place the blame squarely on that musical scapegoat that's been blamed for decades with arguably worse things like driving youth to devil worship: heavy metal.
This use of metal is the unruly teenage offspring of the term heavy metal, which of course refers, as your hopelessly academic-sounding dictionary asserts, to "energetic and highly amplified electronic rock music having a hard beat."
Read the complete article here.
