AP dropped the hyphen in email earlier this month and now the latest update of the Oxford English Dictionary Online has added a whole new slew of initialisms to the roster. OMG, LOL, and ♥ (as in “to heart”) join other entries of this sort such as IMHO, TMI and BFF.
With approximately 600,000 words, the Oxford English Dictionary is the longest official dictionary; as stated by The Guinness Book of World Records. And getting longer by the day. If you’re one of those who look at these “initialisms” and say WTF, there’s even more torture. In February and March a whole bunch of ridiculous words made their way into OED. Here’s just a few:
- La-la land: can refer either to Los Angeles or to a state of being out of touch with reality (and sometimes to both simultaneously.)
- Muffin top: a roll of fat visible above the top of a pair of women’s tight-fitting low-waisted pants.
- Bromance: a close and non-sexual relationship between two men. (I blame Barney from How I Met Your Mother! for this one.)
- Woot: used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph
- Nom-nom: used to express pleasure at eating. (Seriously? Does anyone past the age of 2 say this?)
- Sammich: a sandwich (I can see teachers cringe everywhere.)
Tanorexia: an obsessive desire to acquire and maintain a suntan, by natural or artificial methods. (Ummmmm, really?)- Egosurf: search the internet for instances of one‘s own name or links to one’s own website.
- Buttload: a large number or amount. (I’ll admit I’ve been saying this one for years, but never in writing)
- Tinfoil hat: used in allusion to the belief that wearing a hat made from tinfoil will protect one against government surveillance or mind control by extraterrestrial beings. (aka nut bags)
- Sexting: the sending of sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone.
I don’t see sammich in a spelling bee anytime soon, but as an avid Scrabble player, I’m happy these little electronic jewels are official words in the dictionary. How soon will the Scrabble iPad app recognize them? LOL! And TTFN.
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