(Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

Encountering new words is a fun thing. Usually all I have to do is turn to page 4 of our paper on the days George Will’s column appears and he is good for at least 1-3 trips to the dictionary.

Hopefully, he is making the same trips to come up with some of the zingers he uses, as it should be clear our society has adequately eroded to regard no one being left in actual possession of such an innate use of the language.

This week, I was given the news by my editor that the word bougie had made it into the Merriam Webster dictionary.

My first encounter with the word was last Christmas when one of my children received a rather fashionable gift and said, “It’s so bougie.”

I had never heard of the word other than immediately wondering if it was a distant cousin of bourgeoisie, a term to describe the middle class.

But last Christmas, my only relief in finding anything about bougie was a rather crude definition in the Urban Dictionary stemming from a rap song indicating an upper class or high rolling vibe.

You could probably rank Urban Dictionary somewhere below Wikipedia for reliable sourcing if you are a journalist or an English prof but it is a source for a good laugh and may help you understand what your kids and grandkids are talking about.

Don’t try to use the word bougie in communicating with your kids or grandkids as it only perplexes them when we try to actually communicate with them in their own vernacular.

It seems we’ve lost so many better social graces in this day and age. We used to run a column many years ago by Judith Martin called Miss Manners. Her mug shot revealed a rather stern persona and her answers, while genteel, were to the point. I checked her out to see if she is still around and it turns out she is still publishing her column with the help of her children.

Some examples for those who remember her fondly are:

It is far more impressive when others discover your good qualities without your help.

If you can’t be kind, at least be vague.

These are clearly lost canons in the ethos of our current age.

At the risk of not being vague, with all the turmoil in the White House these days the only thing that has not been suggested as a new cabinet position is a governess for the Commander in Chief.

To be clear, let’s not stop with our current President let’s just make the position permanent and apply it to Congress as well. The Supremes may be the last adults left in Washington, besides George Will.

I nominate Miss Manners for Governess.

Is there a second?