Kids today! Who can tell what they’re saying, right Grandma? In fact, Andrew Sullivan points us to these fascinating tables from Trends in Teenage Talkthat suggest teens are cursing the same way they have for decades. (Spoiler: they sure love to drop the “F-bomb.”) While there does seem to be some lighthearted concern about the diminishing use of “bollocks” in the UK, we’re just happy the “C word” and various racist slurs aren’t making a comeback. Also interesting: British guys seem to out-swear their female counterparts at a rate of nearly two to one, while the genders seem more equitable in the US. Is this progress, or just depressing? Let us know what you think in the comments.
A revised edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was released online today, and everyone’s buzzing about the addition of “heart” — as in, the “<3″ symbol, a verb meaning “to love.” In fact, this new inclusion is pretty representative of the types of terms that appear in the update, which seem to fall into two overlapping groups: words related to the internet and words that come straight from the vocabulary of teenage girls and/or the ladymags they read.
Tech terms on the list include “dotbomb” (a failed internet company), “fabless” (a firm that doesn’t manufacture its own product”), and “ego-surfing” (the generic term for Googling yourself), while “muffin top,” “wags” (an acronym for “wives and girlfriends”), “singledom,” and “domestic goddess” all seem ripped from the pages of Cosmo. And then there’s “OMG” and “LOL,” which — like “<3″ — appeal to both the teen girl camp and the dudes at 4chan. But the OED‘s true term for our times? “Tinfoil hat.” Congratulations, crazies, you made the dictionary of record. A full list of words, from “about round” to “yidaski” is here.
In his new book All in a Word, linguist Vivian Cook examines both the history and meaning of words through an assortment of games, lists, puzzles, and quotes. Of the more than 100 entries, we found ourselves geeking out the most over #53 “Chaucer’s Words” and #68 “Majestic Radiance (Shakespeare’s New Words)”. While Cook notes in both instances that the famed writers probably didn’t invent the words listed, as much as make the first recorded use of the language around them, it’s interesting to see who’s responsible for what. Click through to check out our handy chart; we’ve even bolded some of the words that we found the most entertaining.
While the 2009 Time magazine “Person of the Year” has been narrowed down to either Twitter or the economy (neither are people, you see), the New Oxford American Dictionary Word of the Year has been decided. The winner? “Unfriend.”
Unfriend: v. To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook.
“It has both currency and potential longevity,” notes Christine Lindberg, Senior Lexicographer for Oxford’s US dictionary program. “In the online social networking context, its meaning is understood, so its adoption as a modern verb form makes this an interesting choice for Word of the Year…Unfriend has real lex-appeal.”
Earlier in the week, we reported with excitement about the virtual democratization of the dictionary, thanks to new tool Wordnik. Unfortunately, it seems this open attitude to language is being met with a stern caning from school mistress and pedagogue, the New York Times. This week, NYT released a list of the words that most perplex readers of the online edition. When a reader doesn’t understand a word and highlights it, the paper comes to the rescue, providing a definition. Whilst we recognize the joys of discovering new words (and who, other than a solipsistic and frankly enervating person, doesn’t become apoplectic with delight upon encountering apposite neologisms?*) when we read, is there really a need for the paper to prescribe our vocabulary lists to us? Surely the job of the NYT is to communicate news stories directly and with flair, as opposed to making us reach for our dictionaries over breakfast? Read More »
