Have you ever defriended someone, or organized a tweetup? Blown on a vuvuzela or bought something bargainous? If so, the Oxford Dictionary of English would like to recognize your achievements.
The World Cup, the credit crunch and social networking have all made a mark on the way we talk. The Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) — not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary — is duly paying attention. The ODE is a dictionary based on how language is used in everyday life. It has 200 new phrases in its latest edition, out today. (See the 25 worst infomercials of all time.)
The dictionary, which was first published in 1998, with this new one being its third edition, includes words such as frenemy (a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike), LBD (Little Black Dress), cheeseball (someone or something lacking taste, style or originality) and bromance (a close but nonsexual relationship between two men. Or to put another way: the movie career of Judd Apatow).
“The dictionary reflects the way the language has changed over the last few years,” Catherine Soanes, head of online dictionaries at Oxford University Press, tells TIME. “We run the biggest language-research program in the world, with an online database of over 2 billion words.”
So, do you feel it’s time to chillax (calm down and relax), take a chill pill (a notional pill for relaxing) or maybe even take a staycation (a holiday at home)? Then why not curl up with some steampunk (a genre of science fiction that typically features steam-powered machinery) or even the new Oxford Dictionary of English, which NewsFeed is more than happy to call a national treasure (something regarded as emblematic of a nation’s cultural heritage)?
For a full list of the new phrases, click here.
-Frances Perraudin
