New words added to the Oxford Dictionary

It’s that time again. The time of the year in which Talking Heads gleefully anticipates what new words have been added in to the Oxford Dictionary. The amount of words added every year is quite a list; surely the dictionary will get to a point in which it’s not very portable anymore. Susie Dent of Dictionary Corner, Countdown fame is usually quick on the draw in finding the page, column and paragraph where a certain word lies, but with all the recent additions her slender arms may struggle to cope.

Without further ado, let’s see some of the new additions.

Possibly the most talked about new word to be accepted into the dictionary list is ‘twerk’. Now if you don’t know what this is, then where have you been? What you need to firstly do is buy the new edition of Oxford Dictionary to look it up and secondly watch Miley Cyrus’ NSFW MTV Awards performance with Robin Thicke. If you can’t wait that long then we’ll briefly describe it as ‘todance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving undulating bottom movements and a low, squatting stance’.

A lot of press has been generated about the word ‘twerk’ and how it has been accepted into the Oxford Dictionary. One of the rules of having a new addition, is that the word must have been used for over ten years - but no, you may say – ‘twerk’ is a new thing!.

However, although the word ‘twerk’ may have regained popularity only in the last 3 years, the word has been around since the 1820’s as this BBC News article shows.  

‘FOMO’ which is an acronym for ‘fear of missing out’ is another word that has been added. We’re recent adopters of this word. We like it; it’s great, it’s punchy and because we’re nonstop busy, most importantly, it saves us time by reducing the amount of syllables spoken. Talking Heads are all for efficiency!

FLOTUS (First Lady of The United States), Fo’shizzle (for sure), Twitterati (Twitter users) and Photobomb (spoiling a photo by appearing in the camera’s field vision) all make the list of five hundred words that will be added to the esteemed dictionary. Changes have already been made to the online version of Oxford Dictionary.

If you need ‘twerk’, ‘FLOTUS’, ‘e-cigarette’ or any other word translating, or you have FOMO (see what we did there) due to lack of translations ,then contact me - fo’shizzle.

Dane