Dating life in D.C. can be tough. What to wear for the occasion; do we whip out our bling bling or go for a more subtle approach? We spend the time before basking in insecurity about our appearance, wondering if we should just forsake the whole gym thing and go for the gastric bypass surgery instead. And heaven forbid, it’s a blind date. We know then, there’s a good chance he’ll turn out to be a unibrow-sporting, soul-patch-wearing fan of manga. Even if we Google the guy before going out with him, we have no way of knowing whether he’s really just a himbo practicing polyamory on the side. Ah well, at least we can console ourselves by text-messaging our friends from the bathroom about how poorly the date is going.

Joking aside, if you find yourself bored on your next D.C. date, here’s a conversation piece for you: Merriam-Webster has just released its list of new words being added to the dictionary this year, including those bolded above. Bloggers like us wince at the addition of mouse potato (does anyone really say that?), though others seem obvious (DC-area teachers alreadly know what ringtones are; they’re just hoping their students aren’t sporting the supersonic versions). And we wait patiently for the inclusion of Butterstick, or possibly constairpation.

Check out even more of the new words here.