NEWS: OMG, LOL and ♥ added to dictionary.

It's difficult to avoid letting things such as ♥, OMG, and LOL slip into our text messages and emails, but at least we can now excuse that by pointing out that those are in fact terms acknowledged by the authorities of the English language.

In the latest update of the Oxford English Dictionary, there are a whole new batch of silly words and definitions including several initialisms — abbreviations consisting of the initial letters of expressions — made popular through their frequent use in text messages, tweets, or emails.

The experts at Oxford Dictionaries Online explain that the initialisms added to the dictionary are "noteworthy" and even happen to be "found outside of electronic contexts" at times, and we believe them. After all, how could these language authorities not add initialisms and words like this to the dictionary without a good reason:

* couch surfing
* ego-surfing
* la-la land
* LOL
* meep
* muffin top
* OMG
* party-crashing
* wassup

Our favorite thing in this entire update though? A tweak to the definition of 'heart':

♥ to heart

The new sense added to heart v. in this update may be the first English usage to develop via the medium of T-shirts and bumper-stickers. It originated as a humorous reference to logos featuring a picture of a heart as a symbol for the verb love, like that of the famous ‘I ♥ NY’ tourism campaign. Our earliest quote for this use, from 1984, uses the verb in ‘I heart my dog’s head’, a jokey play on bumper stickers featuring a heart and a picture of the face of a particular breed of dog (expressing a person’s enthusiasm for, say, shih-tzus) which itself became a popular bumper sticker. From these beginnings, heart v. has gone on to live an existence in more traditional genres of literature as a colloquial synonym for ‘to love’.

Yes, that's 'wassup' with this month's modifications of the Oxford English Dictionary. Let's hope that next month brings us definitions for more initialisms such as OMGWTF, ROFL, LMAO, and KIT.
http://digitallife.today.com/_news/2011/03/24/6335138-omg-and-lol-added-to-the-dictionary

Arkanay wrote:Hmm... I don't think having them in the dictionary gives you a free ticket to use them. Words such as F***, C***, etc. can also be found in a proper dictionary, with the mere purpose to explain the reader what it stands for. It also has a little sidenote, informing that those words are rude and should not be used.
I think it's fine to add such terms, since many people very likely would like to know what they mean.

One cannot deny, though, that there is a risk that some words can actually be absorbed into regular speaking and such, as language has a tendency to evolve. Nevertheless, I believe, besides explaining what it is, information in the dictionary should be provided that some of those terms came from the online world and should be only used there for the time being.

TyrannoFan wrote:Wouldn't be surprised if they added ▲.

sjhorm wrote:

TyrannoFan wrote:Wouldn't be surprised if they added ▲.

Or maybe
  ▲
▲ ▲

Red-Indigo wrote:ROFL



Seriously though, it seems our language and standards of language is seriously failing.