‘Thirst trap’ and ‘edgelord’ are now in the dictionary — why haven't other words made it?

Some words, such as 'nibling', have been around for decades and yet they are still absent from the dictionary. Roger J. Kreuz thinks he knows why

Many new terms are a blend of two words that already exist. File picture

A student in my graduate seminar recently mentioned seeing her “niblings” at Thanksgiving. Some of the students in my class were clearly familiar with the term. But others frowned, suggesting that they hadn’t heard the term before, or didn’t know what it meant.

A nibling is the child of one’s brothers or sisters. The word is a blend of the “n” in “niece” and “nephew” with “sibling,” and it was coined in the early 1950s by linguist Samuel Martin. But even though it’s been around for over 70 years, the word isn’t included in the online Merriam-Webster dictionary.