Ugh, "nepo babies" even beat us into the dictionary

Sometimes it feels like everywhere you turn in life, the nepo babies have gotten their first. Film and television roles? You know they’ve got you beat. The cover of New York magazine? They scored it back in December of 2022, complete with their own year! The line at Starbucks? Have no doubt that, even as you stand there, parched, some offshoot Baldwin or Quaid is probably up there right now, asking for your pumpkin cream cold brew.

And what is a nepo baby, some of you might ask? Well, tragically, we have an exact answer—because “nepo baby” has now also beat you, us, and everyone we know into the listings of dictionary.com, which defines it as “noun. a celebrity with a parent who is also famous, especially one whose industry connections are perceived as essential to their success.” The term is one of 566 new entries added to the lexicography site this fall, heartlessly leveraging its in-born connections to other words and concepts in the English language to get a leg-up over the competition.

The rise of “nepo baby” has been a controversial one, since most human beings do not typically enjoy being reminded that some percentage of their success in life comes from privilege and other factors that have nothing to do with their actual talents. (Reactions to the discourse have ranged pretty widely from good-natured acceptance to genuine anger and accusations of misogyny amongst the “My mom or dad has an Oscar set.”) In any case, its inclusion on the dictionary site certainly suggests it’s picked up enough cultural cachet to stick—although given that the same load of new words includes the phrase “shower orange” (“noun. an orange that is peeled and eaten under a steamy shower”) we can maintain some level of hope that the whole thing will eventually fade into the fog of a meme-rich past.

[via THR]