Dictionaries exist in between a rock and a hard place: jump on new words too late and they look like a dinosaur, add in words too early and they’re made into a mockery. Words are hard, yes, but some words don’t exactly need defining like some of these just added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online.
Surprisingly (or I guess, not really anymore), there were a lot of wacky tech and Internet words that made the cut to be included inside the Oxford Dictionaries Online. But here’s the thing about adding words we use on the Internet to the English dictionary: we’re not really talking English. It may sound like it, it may look like it but it’s a whole ‘nother lingo altogether. Anyways:
lolz
mwahahaha (seriously?)
photobomb
ridic
tweeps
ethical hacker (this cracks me up)
hackathon
hat tip
lifecasting
inbox (just now?)
UX
video chat
Wikipedian
See, I can totally understand how some of those words need defining. UX, inbox, video chat, even hackathon. But words like mwahahaha and ridic are well, ridic. Come on now. Here are some none tech words that are now part of the dictionary and they’re even more ridiculous:
date night
dirty martini (what?)
douche (they’re an official breed now!)
DW
genius (what the fuck?)
group hug
guilty pleasure
hosepipe ban (wait this is seriously what the fuck)
micropig (a pig of a very small, docile, hairless variety)
OH
ripped
soul patch
vajazzle
vote someone/thing off the island (what is this Y2K?
I need to learn a new language. [Oxford Dictionaries, Image Credit: sergign/Shutterstock]
