But it also continues a long history of recording low-brow language: dictionaries of English slang have been around in some form for centuries. With its crowdsourced definitions and high speed of coinage, Urban Dictionary is very much a product of the internet age. “IBM experimented with adding Urban Dictionary data to its artificial intelligence system Watson, only to scrub it all out again when the computer started swearing at them.” It’s clear from a quick browse through the trending terms that the users are particularly titillated by (or nervous about) women’s bodies (e.g., twatopotamus) and sex between men (e.g., vaginal intolerant). Bigoted words and definitions have thrived on the site, but Peckham believes that offensive words should be left intact. This isn’t just a matter of trifling but ultimately harmless terms.

Of course, Urban Dictionary is also a repository of adolescent grossout humor, often humor about sexual practices that are the stuff of urban legends (uh, penis McFlurry?). Yet Urban Dictionary has become much more than a parody site, drawing approximately 65 million visitors every month. It was founded in 1999 by computer science student Aaron Peckham to make fun of the comparatively staid. Urban Dictionary, as you may know, is a crowdsourced website where anyone can suggest a new word-or a new definition of a word-years before establishment lexicographers catch on. The icon indicates free access to the linked research on JSTOR.

Lingo meaning aaron