The Daily Buzz‘Tweet,’ ‘crowdsourcing’ and ‘mani-pedi’ added to the Oxford English Dictionary
Hurry up and tweet about that new crowdsourcing campaign to fund your next mani-pedi, because as of this month, these words aren't the hip slang they once were.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added a new list of words to its official ranks, and this time it broke its own rules for what it takes to qualify for dictionary status.
Normally a word must be in usage for at least a decade before the OED will include it within its pages, chief editor John Simpson wrote in a statement. But the word "tweet," as a verb and as a noun, was added to this month's new word list even though the social media website Twitter was only founded in 2006.
[ Related: "Tweet", "dad dancing" and "geekery" make Oxford Dictionary ]
"It seems to be catching on," Simpson wrote.
Welcome to the mainstream, Twitter, if you weren't already here.
Other technical words to join tweet include "crowdsourcing" and "mouseover," both terms of the Internet age. Be sure you're using the new words correctly based on their official definitions:
tweet: v.
2. a.To make a posting on the social networking service Twitter. Also: to use Twitter regularly or habitually.
2. b. To post (a message, item of information, etc.) on Twitter. Also: to post a message to (a particular person, organization, etc.).
crowdsourcing, n.
The practice of obtaining information or services by soliciting input from a large number of people, typically via the Internet and often without offering compensation.
mouseover, n.
The action of moving the pointer on to an element of a graphical user interface or web page; an event (esp. a visual change) triggered by this.
However, scholars of the English language will have to look into their hearts and minds to fully grasp the changes to the OED, and they'll have to look at their hands too.
[ Related: Germany’s longest word dropped due to law change ]
Words such as "heart-wrenching," "handyman special" and "head space" are new to the dictionary, along with many variations and compounds of these three bodyparts.
But the most fitting new word for those of us who scour the dictionary is probably geekery.
