Here’s a list of 25 from m-w.com. How many can do you know the meaning of?
- acai
- carbon footprint
- cardioprotective
- earmark
- fan fiction
- flash mob
- frenemy
- goji
- green-collar
- haram
- locavore
- memory foam
- missalette
- naproxen
- neuroprotective
- pharmacogenetics
- physiatry
- reggaeton
- shawarma
- sock puppet
- staycation
- vlog
- waterboarding
- webisode
- zip line
I can recite a near-dictionary definition for 9 of these, and I know what an additional 5 are in general terms (I know that acai is a kind of…)
As for the remaining 11, I have no idea. I could take a stab at a few - I think I now what “locavore” is supposed to be (and it’s stupid).
I am shocked some of those words aren’t already in M-W. “Earmark” just made it in? “Missalette” (growing up Catholic, we had missalettes at church since as far back as I can remember, which would be late 70s/early 80s.) “Shawarma”?
The only words I’m unsure about are “goji” (is that the same as “koji”? used to make soy sauce?) and “physiatry.” I’ve never heard the terms “cardioprotective” and “neuroprotective” but I assume they’re self-explanatory.
A “locavore” is someone who tries to eat predominantly locally grown/produced food. Overall, it’s a good idea and I support the general principle, but it’s a stupid word.
This confirms that Merriam-Webster will never be my dictionary of choice.
This is the year they let spammers choose the words.
“Staycation” makes me all stabby. OK, you had a week off from work and you didn’t go anywhere. What the hell do you need a special cutesy word for that for? You know what people called that when I was a kid? “Vacation.” Lounging around. Gettin’ some yard work done. Reading some books. Go bowling or golfing maybe. Y’know, nothing special. Or, you might go on a trip, who knows!
“Staycation” offers all the excitement of lounging at home with no dispensation for an actual trip. “Don’t pack your bags kids, we’re ‘going’ on a staycation!” “Yaay, let’s play Monopoly!”
Indeed. “Frenemy”? Way to be a less current version of urbandictionary.com, Merriam-Webster.
Though as cracked.com pointed out back in May, the OED isn’t without sin, either.
I don’t know what 08, 10, 13, 14, 17, 19, or 22 mean. 10, 14 and 17 look like mispellings of real words.
Reggaeton is really just making the list now? I even know the names of some reggaeton artists, like Daddy Yankee and Wisin & Yandel, though it’s not my kind of music.
OK, so what is a zip-line? The sealing device on a baggie?
The fact that dictionary makers still use the word “words” to describe two-word phrases makes me weep for humanity.
How many hundreds of years did “sock puppets” exist before it became a word? Come on.
I’m not familiar with goji, haram, physiatry or missalettes. I thought I knew haram, but then realized I was thinking of halal - and it looks like they are opposites.
Well, when were socks invented? 
The puppet meaning has been around for a long time, but they probably added it because of the increased popularity of the online definition, which was coined in the '90s. The first known usage was 16 years ago yesterday, in fact.
Agreed with Jenaroph about staycation. I’m not fond of “green collar” either.
By a drug-addled lunatic, no less.
A pulley descending on a wire with somebody hanging on/tied under it, like you see on assault courses, and children’s playgrounds. It’s a really common word in the UK now (and I always presumed it was an Americanism—we always called them “pulleys” when I was small).
Pharmacogenetics? Seriously? That’s not a new word, it’s been around for a while.
And Islam has been around for 1,430 years, so presumably the idea of haraam has been around for about that long. They’re just new to this dictionary. The idea that these words, or words just added to the OED, are “new words” is just intended to sell dictionaries or justify press coverage.
I stopped thinking of Merriam-Webster as a legitimate source of vocabulary when they decided to pick w00t as their word of the year.
In their defence, it was viewer-picked, but the fact that they’re considering its inclusion in an official edition?
Cemented.
I have never heard the online definition anywhere but here. I always thought it was an SDMB thing. Personally, I always thought “sock puppet” sounded really stupid as a description of someone who was using a second account.
But I do have to say, for as stupid as staycation sounds, the man who coined it (Brent Butt) is awesome and deservers any further fame.
The words given in that list are sometimes being added in the new senses that they have developed recently. “Earmark” is an old word, but it has a new sense in the discussion of bills in the U.S. Congress. Similarly, “sock puppet” is an old word, but it has a new sense in its use in message boards (like the SDMB, in fact). Others are words that have existed in other languages for a long time which have just become current in English, like “haram” (Note: not “harem,” which has been in English for a long time) and “goji.” And, for what it’s worth, the dictionary makers don’t remotely care if you don’t like a word. If it’s being used enough, it gets in the dictionary, regardless of what you feel about it.
Incidentally, why are people asking what some of the words mean? All you have to do is click on the link and then click on the word. The definitions are given right there.