Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Metal Science

Merriam-Webster Considering Adding "Metal" As An Adjective To The Dictionary

As in, "Morbid Angel is pretty f'n metal."

As in, "Morbid Angel is pretty f'n metal."

As a reader of this site, I'm willing to bet that just about all of you have used the word "metal" as an adjective. Whether you're describing someone's t-shirt, album art, or just a particularly brutal thing someone did, it's a pretty diverse word. Diverse and well-used enough anyway that Merriam-Webster is considering adding it as an adjective to the dictionary.

Here's how the dictionary views the word currently as an adjective.

That right: this use of metal is the unruly teenage offspring of the term heavy metal, which of course refers, as your hopelessly academic-sounding dictionary asserts, to "energetic and highly amplified electronic rock music having a hard beat."

The upstart metal descriptor evokes the powerful energy and dark themes of heavy metal music, communicating toughness, intensity, and general, er, badassery.

Merriam-Webster cites examples from 1998 using the word as an adjective, and described the whole ordeal as "a pretty metal development."

Anyone else got a hankering to watch some Metalocalypse now?

Here are some related metal studies:

Show Comments / Reactions

You May Also Like

Metal Science

But hey, it doesn't go poorly for everyone!

Around the Interwebs

This Is Halloween and Sally's Song like you've never heard before!

Politics

Belarusian metal bands are speaking out about the ongoing unrest in the nation.

Metal Crimes

I'm still trying to put together all the facts, but here is what is known so far. There was a hardcore show at a...