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New words in the OED

Written by Kirsten on June 1st, 2009

This article lists fifteen words recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary, courtesy of the entertainment, business, and social networking worlds. It was really only a matter of time before “muggle” made it in there, but I’m pleasantly surprised by the addition of “grrl” and “lookism” – as well as their definitions. “Meatspace” always makes me laugh, and look! now it’s a real word! But “bouncebackability?” “Riffage?” I feel like entries like this will cause language, rather than fashion or music (um, hammer pants? Disco?) to be the snicker-worthy mark of our generation:  “They needed a word for THAT?”

What do you think of the list? What words do you see being added in the next couple of years?

 

2 Comments so far ↓

  1. First of all, can I say that I found the comments after each word hilarious! As it appears that they’re a little slow (I know at least 3 of those words had their heyday in the ’90s) I can only imagine they’ll be adding words like ‘Jiggy’ and ‘bling’ any time now.

    Honestly, I don’t have the entire OED memorized, and wouldn’t be surprised if those words are already in there. Words I’d expect to see soon are ‘twitter’ and all it’s grammatical permutations, and ‘fugly’, which I use more than I probably should.

  2. Kirsten says:

    I can definitely see more nouns being “verbed” (bwahaha), and more branding and tech crossover. Some of these just seem more like… Fads, I guess, than words to stand the test of time.

    There’s another article I’m contemplating sharing, but it’s a bit more… ahem… “Colorful,” I suppose. Think I need a “for mature audiences” rating on my blog? :-P