As posted on
TekGoblin
Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED) is the smaller but most widely recognized derivative of the official Oxford English Dictionary, which is celebrating this August its 100th anniversary. To celebrate, the lexicon published its 12th edition today that adds more than 400 new entries – many of which reflect the technological vocabulary found in today’s society, like “woot,” “mankini,” and “jeggings.”
The words are chosen by a small team at the Oxford University Press’s academic cabinet which involves keying popular words into a database that shows frequency of use in print and online. Since publishing its first edition back in 1911, the COED shows how the effects of social media and instant-access technology on language has created a variety of new words while modifying existing definitions such as “follower”.
Oddly enough, the new dictionary contains a handful of slang terms that may seem better suited for the Urban Dictionary, words like;
- mankini (pl. mankinis): A brief one-piece bathing garment for men, with a T-back
- retweet: To repost or forward (on the social networking site Twitter)
- woot: used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph (especially in electronic communication)
- noob(pretty sure this is supposed to have two zeros in it): a person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the Internet
- jeggings: tight-fitting stretch trousers for women (or men)
This shows that the continual growth of the internet and the culture that it creates is slowly becoming a more normal and recognized part of daily life. As long as they don’t start defining l33t I have no objection to including more gaming or geek slang/speak.
Next up.... pwned!
woot 