Merriam-Webster’s time traveler page shows you words that were added to the dictionary in a given year. The year I was born, 1978, is the year that bed-and-breakfasts, bodice rippers, and BFFs joined the canon. You won’t be surprised that in the late 70s juiceries and meaderies were entered in the dictionary, along with lookism and pad thai. Information technology, my field, earned its place in Merriam-Webster’s, and the job title “intrapreneur” was recognized.

I haven’t heard of intrapreneur before, it was a buzzword before its time, due for a revival. I guess when my sabbatical ends, my new job at MongoDB will be aptly described thus.

(Apropos to “Mean Girls”, “snitty” was made official in 1978.)

Presciently, Merriam-Webster added “proning”, “vaxx”, and “wet-market” all at once, words that waited until Covid for their fateful rendezvous.

In 1978, the MW editors added some IT jargon that describes my college years. The dictionary acquired “anti-aliasing”, which I studied in my graphics class, and “logic bomb”, which I once deployed to crash the judges' machines when I was losing an ACM coding contest. (I was just lashing out, and I knew ACM’s security would prevent harm. My college was banned from the contest for years, though.)

The dictionary got “MDMA” and “baked” (in the sense you’re thinking of) in 1978, which also describe my college years.