By Wendy J. MillerThe Concise Oxford English Dictionary (COED) reached its 100 year milestone this August and, in recognition of that auspicious marker, announced some interesting updates. Gone are catchy words coined in 1911, including brabble (a noisy gathering) and growlery (manly den), to be replaced by OMG, <3, and woot - an timely nod to electronic communication's steady interweaving into our daily lives and language.
The new COED is comprised of more than 240,000,000 words, and just may be worth a bit of serious study time. You may have a stellar vocabulary, but do you know the meaning of momo? How about noob and nurdle? Times change, and as such the need arises to define our unique experiences - hence neologisms (new words) are born!
Wondering how new words gain entry to the COED? It turns out that new word additions are approved by a small team at the Oxford University Press, and they use various Internet search engines to track the popularity of new words and phrases. The more popular the word/words, the more likely they will be considered for updated editions of the publication.
COED editor, Angus Stevenson, recently credited the Internet and social media applications for accelerating the spread of neologisms. It all makes one wonder what the next edition will bring - what words will stand the test of time, and which will be discarded and forgotten? Better retweet you fav wordy bits as much as possible - you could be saving their lives!
