Make Way for New Words
Posted: August 16, 2012
[caption id="attachment_10444" align="alignright" width="305"]
© barneyboogles - Fotolia.com[/caption]Another new round of words has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary – check them out – both the good and not so good.
[caption id="attachment_10444" align="alignright" width="305"]© barneyboogles - Fotolia.com[/caption]Another new round of words has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary – check them out – both the good and not so good.
The Oxford English Dictionary has an insatiable appetite for new entries: Every three months, it expands its inventory with dozens of words. A recent newspaper article, however, sensationalized recent acquisitions by selectively announcing a pile of pop-culture-inspired terms, missing the whole point of a dictionary.
The OED, like most other dictionaries, is descriptivist: It describes the state of the language. Some descriptivist resources weigh in on the formality of given entries, or their acceptability by a panel of language experts. The procedure for approving candidate terms for inclusion varies, as dictionary staffs differ on how long a term should have been in general circulation before it earns the stamp of approval.
But dictionaries do not include or omit words based on their quality. So, withhold your outrage when you read that you can now find such entries as bromance (a close friendship between two men), guyliner (eyeliner worn by a man), and mankini (a man’s one-piece bathing suit with shoulder straps). The apocalypse is not nigh. The OED is merely reflecting usage. (Well, OK, maybe the apocalypse is nigh.)
But wait, you argue. You wouldn’t be caught uttering or penning one of those words, inducted into the OED in 2011. My rebuttal? I deduce that you are over twenty-five years old. Well, yes, you might reply — as is a majority of the world’s English-reading population. That’s true, and many people born in the last twenty-five years would probably be embarrassed to employ one of these terms in conversation, too. But many folks of all ages know these words — they’re in our word-hoard, whether we choose to speak or write them or not. And though some may turn out to be ephemeral, the OED has rightfully catalogued them as being in current usage.