Various French dictionaries are keeping up with changing French life by including some brand-new words. Should we learn them… or will the very fact that they’re now accepted make the rebellious French not use them anymore? The columnist suggests the latter – that the French are so contrary that, now that the words are in dictionaries, his countrymen will stop using them. After all, he suggests, the contrariness was one of the reasons the French coined them in the first place. The observation is ironic albeit quite possible.  In any case, the new words do reveal much about today’s changing French culture.

If you can figure out the words – and the article suggests that even many French can’t, can you see different categories that these words fit in?

Ce que l’on peut dire – La république des livres – Blog LeMonde.fr