OMG Enters OED

LOL, IMHO, BFF also make linguistic cut

Commentary
by Bruce Felps

The English language continues to live and adapt to our modern world as new words and phrases enter the lexicon.

Official admission, apparently, extends to abbreviations, as well.

Editors with the Oxford English Dictionary, the bastion of accepted words, recently gave a passing grade to online- and text-speak and included “OMG,” “LOL,” “BFF,” and “IMHO.” If you are unsure of the meaning of one or more of those abbreviations you can look them up, and you don’t even need to wait for your copy of the OED to arrive in the mail.

According to an article published today at Forbes.com [switching to a Cliff Claven voice], “It’s a little-known fact, there, that ‘OMG’ dates back to 1917,” and there’s your trivia for today.

New additions to the OED also include phrases rather than just abbreviations. “Ego-surfing,” the act of looking up one’s own name online — and can "Google" as a verb be far behind, or is it already in there? — found its way into the newest edition as did “muffin top,” the pudgy roll of skin flowing over the waistband of jeans or trousers, and that’s just “disgusting,” which was already in the dictionary.


Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He does not ego-surf because he’s afraid of what he might find.
 

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