Merriam-Webster adds 150 new words

The latest edition of Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has one region celebrating.

For more than a decade, a prosecutor in Michigan has been fighting to add the word "Yooper" to the dictionary.

It refers to a native or longtime resident of the Lake Superior region and people there say it's becoming more recognizable outside their area. Plus it's quote, "... just a really colorful word."

Now "Yooper" and 149 other words and phrases have made it into the 11th version of the dictionary. A few more that fall under the category of "colorful" are:

"Turducken" -- a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey.

And then there's "freegan" -- someone who scavenges for free food in trash bins as a way to reduce consumption of resources.

The Associated Press explains Merriam-Webster uses a network of observers who track word usage in everything from newspapers to soup can labels but three or four senior editors make the final cut.

Other words stem from social media and digital life.

Here are the top 15 from AP:

Auto-Tune or auto-tune vt (verb transitive) (2003): a proprietary signal processor, to adjust or alter (a recording of a voice) with Auto-Tune software or other audio-editing software, especially to correct sung notes that are out of tune

cap-and-trade adj (1995): relating to or being a system that caps the amount of carbon emissions a given company may produce but allows it to buy rights to produce additional emissions from a company that does not use the equivalent amount of its own allowance

catfish n (1612): (second definition) a person who sets up a false personal profile on a social networking site for fraudulent or deceptive purposes

crowdfunding n (2006): the practice of soliciting financial contributions from a large number of people, especially from the online community

dubstep n (2002): a type of electronic dance music having prominent bass lines and syncopated drum patterns

fangirl n (1934): a girl or woman who is an extremely or overly enthusiastic fan of someone or something

freegan n (2006): an activist who scavenges for free food (as in waste receptacles at stores and restaurants) as a means of reducing consumption of resources

gamification n (2010): the process of adding games or gameline elements to something (as a task) so as to encourage participation

hashtag n (2008): a word or phrase preceded by the symbol # that classifies or categorizes the accompanying text, such as a tweet

selfie n (2002): an image of oneself taken by oneself using a digital camera, especially for posting on social networks

social networking n (1998): the creation and maintenance of personal and business relationships, especially online

steampunk n (1987) science fiction dealing with 19th-century societies dominated by historical or imagined steam-powered technology

turducken n (1982): a boneless chicken stuffed into a boneless duck stuffed into a boneless turkey

tweep n (2008): a person who uses the Twitter online message service to send and receive tweets

Yooper n (1977): a native or resident of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan - used as a nickname