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Oxford English Dictionary adds "LOL", "FYI", "OMG" as entries

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i remember when my sister asked me to review a paper of hers that included "LOL" and "FYI" in it, big capital letters and everything. Made her fix that shit before i even gave it an in depth read.

......I don't think I've been as disappointed in her since then.
 

dude

dude
So? I never understood why people look at the dictionary like a document that maked something "officialy" a word. It means nothing.
 

tearsofash

Member
Hentai finally made the dictionary. :3

Noticed something from Viz Comics they added: "fnarr fnarr" wtf. At least all the other ones are commonly used.
 

Dambrosi

Banned
I'll just say here what I said to a friend about the Oxford English Dictionary no longer being printed in book form:

"Well, what if the Internet ceases to exist? Like, just, one day it switches off? What then for your precious acronyms and l33t-speak? Having a hardback version would be a nice fallback, now wouldn't it?"[/oldguy]

He then prodeeded to inform me that, if the Internet just suddenly ceased to function one day, the world would have much bigger things to worry about than printing a few textbooks, to which I had to concede.

On topic: It doesn't matter. Language, like DNA, evolves to better suit its current environment.
 
dude said:
So? I never understood why people look at the dictionary like a document that maked something "officialy" a word. It means nothing.

This is often debated. The French, for example, have the Académie Française which is the official authority on the French language.
English has no such organisation and therefore, the OED is widely accepted as the authority on the English language. However, some people argue that in lieu of an officially recognised authority, correctness is defined by common use.

I'd take the OED's word for it on 'maked', though.
 
Articalys said:
Surprisingly, I would actually be more accepting of OMG if it were formally listed as lower case like those are.

then it would need to be pronounced "omg"

i think of OMG or LOL in the same way as something like RSVP, which is presumably also in the OED.
 

.JayZii

Banned
My goodness, I've been using "LOL" to mean "Little Old Lady" this whole time because I consulted the dictionary. I have got egg on my face now.
 

gerg

Member
.JayZii said:
My goodness, I've been using "LOL" to mean "Little Old Lady" this whole time because I consulted the dictionary. I have got egg on my face now.

lol?

C'mon, what you wrote seems like a pretty empty criticism.

white dynamite said:
what about WTF or WTH?

I can't consult the online OED itself (as you need to subscribe), but I'd be surprised if those entries weren't already ijn there.
 

.JayZii

Banned
gerg said:
lol?

C'mon, what you wrote seems like a pretty empty criticism.
Maybe I was too vague. I meant that to mean words and their meanings are transient and nebulous. Therefore looking to the dictionary for proper use is not necessarily correct in modern usage. Because of that, people bemoaning the inclusion of these words into the dictionary where all the "real" words are recorded are being silly.

I thought I was agreeing with you.
 

gerg

Member
.JayZii said:
Maybe I was too vague. I meant that to mean words and their meanings are transient and nebulous. Therefore looking to the dictionary for proper use is not necessarily correct in modern usage. Because of that, people bemoaning the inclusion of these words into the dictionary where all the "real" words are recorded are being silly.

Well, sure, something like the OED will always lag behind the thing which it exists to document. But that's because the OED generally has high(er) standards for inclusion, and also gives a lot more than a definition in its entries, such as etymology and an earliest source of reference. (I think it also gives an example of the word in use from an authentic source, too.) Therefore, there will always be a period in which a word may have gained standard or common usage but is not documented in a dictionary - fortunately, this should be a problem that is reduced now that the OED has moved online.

But, yes, I think we're mostly agreeing (especially if you do think that dictionaries ultimately do have value in documenting words with common usage). Of course, words used by sub-communities may evolve faster than a dictionary can document them, but a dictionary (and especially one limited by space) doesn't exist to document all words - it exists for those which are most commonly used. I forget the word that Erin McKean uses as an example in the speech of hers that I linked to, but I don't think that "brony" will be showing up in the OED soon either. That doesn't mean, however, that in the right context it isn't appropriate to use it.
 
Four hundred years of technological advancement along this current line, and the language won't look anything like it does now among the layman.
 

Zeppu

Member
qY3mf.jpg
 

Sir Pant

Member
Honestly I'm not surprised, but am still disappointed. It seems as if even the people who care about our language have just given up.

The end is nigh!!
 

Stumpokapow

listen to the mad man
Thunder Monkey said:
Four hundred years of technological advancement along this current line, and the language won't look anything like it does now among the layman.

Shakespeare's Cymbeline, 1611 (four hundred years of technological advancement ago)

THE TRAGEDIE OF CYMBELINE

<1>
You do not meet a man but Frownes Our bloods no more obey the Heavens Then our Courtiers: Still feeme, as do's the Kings,

<2>
But, what's the matter?

<1>
His daughter, and the heire of's kingdome (whom He purpos'd to his wiues lole Sonne, a Widdow That late he married) hath referr'd her felfe Vnto a poore, but worthy Gentleman. She's wedded, Her Husband banifh'd; fhe imprifon'd, all Is outward forrow, though I thinke the King Be touch'd at very heart.

<2>
None but the King?

<1>
He that hath loft her too: fo is the Queene, That moft defir'd the Match. But not a Courrier, Although they weare their faces to the bent Of the Kings lookes, hath a heart that is not Glad at the thing they feowle at.

<2>
And why fo?

<1>
He that hath mifs'd that Princeffe, is a thing Too bad, for bad report: and he that hath her, (I meane, that married her, a lacke good man, And therefore banifh'd) is a Creature, fuch, As to feeke through the Regions of the Earth For one, his like; there would be fomething failing in him, that fhould compare, I do not thinke, So faire an Outward, and fuch fluffe Within Endowes a man, but hee.


what is this gibberish
 

Suairyu

Banned
Mockingbird said:
When I first entered the internet people in the aol chatrooms told me that LOL was lots of laughs.
And these days it just means "slightly funny". Language evolution!
 

gerg

Member
Sir Pant said:
Honestly I'm not surprised, but am still disappointed. It seems as if even the people who care about our language have just given up.

The end is nigh!!

Joke post?
 
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