By: Snera Riley
Social media is taking over, no surprise there, but what is making news is Oxford Dictionary’s additions to their library of “real words.” This year’s additions include gossip mill, friend zone, tweetable, and social sharing.
But what makes this such a big deal?
Oxford dictionary is much more than just an average place to find words for your next paper. According to their website, they are “a historical dictionary, the most complete record of the English language ever assembled. It traces a word from its beginnings (which may be in Old or Middle English) to the present, showing the varied and changing ways in which it has been used and illustrating the changes with quotations which add to the historical and linguistic record.” So, words are not added thoughtlessly, they have to have some sort of impact on the English language.
OED divides words into several categories when releasing. Also added this year, dumbphone, cruft, FOSS, touchless, and SSD.
Yes, touchless wasn’t a real word until this year!
So, the next time you find yourself sitting on the bus tweeting on your touchless dumbphone on hump day and you think to yourself, “Wow, schlumpy should be a word.” Check out http://www.oed.com/ and submit! It’s that easy.
For the record, schlumpy is also a real word. Added this year!
For the first quarter list of words added in 2013 click here.
