The Oxford English Dictionary has been around since the latter half of the 1800s and is the world’s most comprehensive single-language print dictionary. It’s an ever-evolving entity, as well, and each year English language speakers keep a watchful eye out for words the powers that be decide to add. On average, Oxford Dictionaries introduces around 1,000 new entries (which is more than Merriam-Webster usually adds), and among those big entries in 2013 are the words selfie, omnishambles, and twerk. We really can’t get away from Miley Cyrus this week, can we?
Oftentimes, words get added to the dictionary as they become more visible. Selfie has been used in the social media community for a few years and has slowly gained prominence, whereas BBC News is reporting usage of the word twerk has dramatically increased in just the last few months. The term is a common one in the hip-hop scene, and it has enjoyed a quick rise to the top. Here's what Oxford Dictionaries employee Katherine Connor Martin had to say.
"By last year, it had generated enough currency to be added to our new words watch list, and by this spring, we had enough evidence of usage frequency in a breadth of sources to consider adding it to our dictionaries of current English.”
Personally, I’m more interested to see the word prepping added to the dictionary for the first time this month. Maybe it’s an American thing, but as I typed this former sentence, Microsoft Word did not underline my spelling, meaning in this instance that the service is one step ahead of the dictionary. Then again, fauxhawk was also just added to the dictionary and gets spellchecked by Microsoft, so maybe both platforms are still behind the times.
If you are wondering about that third word listed initially in the article, that one totally seems to be a U.K. thing. Omnishambles apparently came about thanks to the writers of a BBC comedy known as The Thick of It. It was the word of the year in 2012 and it means “something that is shambolic from every angle.” In case you have no idea what the word shambolic means, it’s chaotic or disorganized. So, now you can get your British word of the week fix.
You can check out some more of the words from this year’s list, below. It’s dumbfounding how some of them weren’t added years ago, and how others have made the cut already. If Oxford executives are to be believed, however, all are worthy of entrance. You can check out the definitions over at the Oxford Dictionaries Online.
Apols
A/W
Babymoon
Balayage
Bitcoin
Blondie
Buzzworthy
BYOD
cake pop
chandelier earring
click and collect
dappy
derp
digital detox
double denim
emoji
fauxhawk
FIL
Flatform
FOMO
food baby
geek chic
girl crush
grats
guac
hackerspace
Internet of things
Jorts
LDR
me time
MOOC
pear cider
phablet
pixie cut
space tourism
squee
