by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: March 26, 2011

The name "Oxford", when added to the word "dictionary" leads to a feeling that one is engaging with an august, if not somewhat stuffy dictionary that is the most revered source of information about the correctness of words. But he Oxford English Dictionary is also known for getting with the times.

Recent additions to the Oxford English dictionary indicate that the new age of texting, e-mails and tweeting have contributed new idioms and expressions. Also, the way in which English speakers and others changed the sense, usage, and meaning of words has led to changes. Finally, entirely new words that were once derided as mere slang or colloquialisms have been added. 

Another new feature is that the dictionary used to be updated by one letter at a time, but now technology allows the more flexible approach of updating throughout the alphabet.

Up to now, all of the work was being done on the letter "R", which has been completed. With the new revision and from here on out, revisions will be worked in throughout the alphabet.

Initialisms, which are pronounced letter by letter, are the most exciting change with this round of revisions. These are expressions that begin with the first letter of a word and give us such well known expressions as OMG, IMHO and LOL.  These represent the phrases Oh my god, In my humble opinion, and laugh out loud. While it is easy to associate initialisms with today's digital world. the term "LOL" actually predated the digital age and goes back to the 1960s when LOL represented "little old lady". Initialisms are being included now because they are actually used as words that have meaning, are effective and take out the overload of embellishment and padding that is not as functional with tweets, emails and forum comments.

The terms OMG was first used in 1917 and LOL was first used in the 1960's. There are far more initialisms that did not enter into the mainstream of usage.

Acronyms are another form of abbreviation where the first letters of words are used. But acronyms are different because they are pronounced as words, not letter by letter. Wags are "Wives and Girlfriends" in Soccer idiom.These abbreviations are words in their own right and can have far more meaning than initialisms.

Finally, more slang, colloquialism, and figures of speech were added this year. Cream crackered, smack talking and whassup are favorites. The word "muffin" denotes a different baked good British as they do to Americans since American muffins are more like cake and the British muffins are more like bread.

With the globalization of foods, several formerly exotic and rare foods, such as doughnut holes, banh mi and  taquito have been added.

"I heart" was added, thanks to the t-shirts and mugs that had the heart symbol, the word "I" and whatever it  is that the person says that they love. This originated in an advertising campaign for New York tourism, but spread like wildfire and is still in use, especially in digital communications. This opens up the possibility that other pictograms with meaning might wind up in the dictionary in the future.

The Oxford English Dictionary site has a detailed explanation of the changes as well as a complete list of the new words, many of which apply to British English language and usage.

Will the Scrabble dictionary publishers rush to add these words? Now that remains to be seen.

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