'Kayfabe' Added To Merriam-Webster Dictionary
The Merriam-Webster dictionary added 690 new words in September 2023, including one of pro wrestling's most famous 'insider' terms.
On Friday, Merriam-Webster published their list of the latest additions.
Alongside words such as mid, simp, rizz, simp, smashburger and edgelord .. is kayfabe, a term that refers to the dying art of 'protecting the business' and portraying pro wrestling to be a legitimate athletic contest.
The formal definition of the term reads,
kayfabe (noun) 1 : the tacit agreement between professional wrestlers and their fans to pretend that overtly staged wrestling events, stories, characters, etc., are genuine; broadly : tacit agreement to behave as if something is real, sincere, or genuine when it is not 2 : the playacting involved in maintaining kayfabe
Merriam-Webster only lists the word as a noun, but the word is also used as a verb. Example: "Let's kayfabe these marks, they don't know it's a work!"
Surprisingly, there are barely any pro wrestling terms to be found in Merriam-Webster's dictionary. While smackdown does appear, other mainstream terms like jabroni do not.
