If people interrupt you and claim that 'buttload' or 'onliner' aren't actual words anytime in the future, laugh in their faces and point them to the Oxford Dictionaries Online.
Yes, one of the authorities on the English language has acknowledged another batch of ridiculous words.
The Next Web reports that the experts at Oxford Dictionaries Online explained that as the Internet’s influence on the English language increased increasing and as new products and services were created, we needed new words and phrases to describe what they are and do.
This means that the following terms are now officially part of the reference text:
- bloggable
- feature phone
- trackpad
- onliner
- scareware
- cyberbullying
- cybersecurity
- clickjacking
- sexting
- woot
- tbh (short for 'to be honest')
- fnarr fnarr (described as "textspeak for sniggering")
- tanorexia
- trolleyed
- nom nom
- bromance
- sammich
- prolly
- tmi (short for 'too much information')
- rumour mill
- light-bulb moment
Yes. 'Light-bulb moment' is now really in the dictionary. We had our own light-bulb moment while pondering how odd it is to have some of the slang terms listed above actually added to a fairly well-respected reference text and we realized the simple reality of things: It comes down to marketing.
The experts at Oxford Dictionaries Online can now proudly proclaim that they truly understand the youth of today and the way language is evolving with each generation. And tbh, we think they maybe really do — after all, we wouldn't consider the topic bloggable otherwise.
Related story:
Rosa Golijan writes about a buttload of topics here and there. TBH, she may be obsessed with Twitter, but still loves to be liked on Facebook — which she definitely doesn't access using a feature phone. Fnarr fnarr.