I‘ll spare you some painfully contorted writing that incorporates the words just added to the Oxford Dictionaries. Besides, I’m too lazy. I’ll just list them and you can do whatever you wish with them. Each is linked to its definition.
I was already familiar with and using some of these (grats, me time, cake pop, pixie cut). Others are completely new to me (A/W, balayage, flatform, food baby). And some I can guarantee will never cross my lips or keyboard (apols, FOMO, food baby, jorts, srsly, squee). I refuse to talk or write like a teenager, and I don’t text enough to adopt its abbreviated forms. I suppose they need to be defined somewhere, but I think the Urban Dictionary would be a more appropriate venue. That’s my source for slang.
I’m surprised to see blondie, pixie cut, and street food included in this list. They’ve been in my vocabulary since the 1950s. I’m also surprised to see FIL, but not MIL, DIL, SIL, etc. Seems to me they’d all be added at the same time. Grats entered my vocabulary when I started gaming back in the days of EverQuest, more than 10 years ago. And twerk … well, I can thank Miley Cyrus for exposing me to that one. Ugh. I’d have preferred to remain ignorant.
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
omnishambles
pear cider
phablet
pixie cut
selfie
space tourism
squee
srsly
street food
TL;DR or TLDR
twerk
unlike
Not too long, did read… 😉
🙂
Food baby!? And twerk is something Beyonce was singing about back in the Destiny’s Child days. I fear for the future of the English language
I’ve virtually ignored pop music for the last 10 or 15 years, and never listen very closely to lyrics. Just not interested in what they have to say.
i see that jorts made the list, one of my worst things
Seems to me “denim shorts” works just as well. Back in my day we wore “cut-offs.” I’m not a fan of ugly, silly coined words like “jorts” or “jeggings.”
This is extremely sad that these words have made it into the English language.
Reblogged this on The Silver Lining of the Optimistic Pessimist and commented:
I believe this is the beginning to the demise of the English language… or the continuing downward spiral of our ever transforming society.
I have enough trouble trying to properly use the language as it is without them adding new gibberish to it all the time, especially considering so many of the new ones originate with people who couldn’t care less about its proper use.
On the bright side, the new updates do generate some fairly interesting TV moments:
Well, I’m in good company if Morgan Freeman also hadn’t heard “twerking” until this week.
I’ve seen many such funky fads added over the years, but nobody ever seems to compile a list of words that are dropped. Once added, are they then immortal? Hope not. I predict that in a few years most will have as much life as last year’s oak leaves. Except “food baby”. Given the staying power of the fast food industry, that one likely has legs. OMG 🙄
In theory, I suppose an online dictionary could expand indefinitely. With print, there are cost and space considerations, so print editors are probably more selective to begin with and quicker to drop obsolete words. But does anyone even use print dictionaries anymore?