Archive for March 27th, 2011

Oxford English Dictionary adds LOL, but not WTF?

Sunday, March 27th, 2011

Wired.com: “The Oxford English Dictionary has announced the latest batch of words and phrases deemed worthy of etymological conservation. From the encyclopedia’s just-released 2011 edition, you’ll see cream crackered, wag and tinfoil hat, as well as internet-era initialisms like LOL and OMG… …“They help to say more in media where there is a limit to a number of characters one may use in a single message,” says principal editor Graeme Diamond on the dictionary’s website. With the rise of concise text messages and 140-character tweets, sometimes less is more. But there’s more to OMG and LOL than just textbox frugality, though, explains Diamond.”

I guess it is too early to add ‘WTF‘, perhaps it is a bit too harsh and not proper ‘queens English’. 😉

At least  the heart symbol (not the <3 emoticon, the actual ♥ graphic) did make it into the latest Oxford English Dictionary edition!