Those little red lines that underline the words “retweet,” “sexting,” and “cyberbullying,” indicating a misspelled word in electronic documents, are no longer correct according to the Oxford English Dictionary.
That’s right, according to the Dictionary’s blog–see, everyone has a blog–there are some next-generation sayings that are now official English language words. The words will begin appearing in the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, meaning the transition from phrase to word is complete. Truth be told, there are over 400 new words in the new edition of the COED, but the ones with Internet roots are gaining all the attention.
Even the blog post’s title reflects these updates:
“Woot woot–get ready to retweet this breaking news.”
And yes, “woot” is one of Oxford’s new editions in their menagerie of words. Some of the other inclusions are words like “jeggings,” “mankini” and “domestic goddess.” Although, that last one is, well, two words, not one. I guess Oxford feels it necessary to define two-word phrases now. Nevertheless, the newsmakers, at least in regards to this publication, are the words birthed via Internet interaction. Here they are, including the definitions, according to the Oxford English Dictionary:
cyberbullying: n. the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.
retweet: v. (on the social networking service Twitter) repost or forward (a message posted by another user). n. a reposted or forwarded message on Twitter.
sexting: n. informal the sending of sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone.
woot: exclam. informal (especially in electronic communication) used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph.
Of course, any time the word “cyberbullying” is mentioned, it’s hard not to think if the 4-chan mashup of ABC Family’s overwrought Cyberbully that was ruthlessly ridiculed on the Internet.
I suppose I should be more sensitive to that particular matter, but when you address it so ham-handedly:
Complete with the dramatic soundtrack and everything else that was included, the subject is made into a mockery, but I digress. Do these inclusions to the English language make you happy is that another sign of the dumbing down of the population?
I mean, jeggings? For real? Just because Oxford says it’s a word, doesn’t mean I have to agree.