Among the 300 new words added to Dictionary.com this month is Zumba, the Latin-inspired fitness program that has truly made a big impact the past few years.
If you walk into any gym across the country, you’re sure to see Zumba on their class schedules. The popular dance fitness classes are one of the most popular forms of exercise as of late.
The classes are so popular, the dictionary recognized the odd word as an official entry. Dictionary.com will not add words simply because they think people should use them, they take a different approach. New words are added when it is recognized that they are being used by a substantial portion of the population. By this standard, it’s obvious that Zumba was a must for the 2024 class of new words.
Zumba was created by dancer and choreographer Alberto “Beto” Perez in Colombia during the 1990s. This booming trend was the result of Perez forgetting his typical cardio music before he was to teach a fitness class. He improvised with the Latin salsa and merengue cassettes in his backpack. By using non-traditional aerobics music in an aerobics class, Zumba was born.
Today, Zumba fans keep returning for the dance aerobics classes. There’s a little bit of something for all tastes at a Zumba class. Choreography incorporates hip-hop, soca, samba, salsa, merengue, mambo, martial arts, and some Bollywood and belly dance moves. Zumba-goers will also find themselves doing squats and lunges as they dance to the music.
Congrats to Zumba for becoming a “real” word in our language and for getting so many people off the couch and into the gym!
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