Bart Simpson and his cartoon family may be crude, but some influential people pay attention to them. Merriam-Webster added 850 new words to its dictionary in March and one of them—embiggen, meaning to make bigger or more expansive—was first used in a 1996 episode of The Simpsons. In the episode, the motto of the fictional town of Springfield is revealed: “A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man.” Merriam-Webster adds hundreds of new words every year, which it says come from a “cross section of our linguistic culture.” This year’s list includes cryptocurrency (a form of digital-only cash); wordie (a lover of words); and chiweenie (a cross between a Chihuahua and a dachshund). Is it surprising that a word from The Simpsons made the list? No, says Laurie Ann Britt-Smith, director of the Center for Writing at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts. “The English language is constantly evolving,” she says, “and pop culture plays an important role in expanding the lexicon.”