my new BFF,
for keeping up-to-date
on pap and Wags and TMI
OMG, I can’t believe you
validated our texting world
of abbreviated speak.
No smack talk. No.
I raise a glass of flat white to you
and munch a doughnut hole.
And I won’t show off my muffin top, LOL
*
*
The Oxford English Dictionary announced its newest words selected for publication (some used above in my silly poem) and a bunch were text-talk.
FYI, the dictionary carries the modest subtitle: The definitive record of the English language. It dates back 150 years and includes the history and meaning of 600,000 words. The photo is early editor James Murray in the Scriptorium.
It’s published by Oxford University, which dates from the 11th century and is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. Among a long list of writers associated with Oxford: Lewis Carroll, Oscar Wilde, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Graham Greene, William Golding, V.S. Naipaul, Phillip Pullman, John Donne, T.S. Elliot.
*
*
Don’t you feel erudite, now? Here are a few of my favorites from the new list: couch surfer
fabless
dot-bomb
rotoscoped
tinfoil hat
ick factor
*
* la-la-la-la-la. I'm singing like the la-la land girl I am. *grins*
*
PS: I'm having a world of trouble with keeping paragraph spaces in my Blogger posts. This is about the sixth try. So please forgive any weirdness.
32 comments:
I am not sure if I even want to know what rotoscoped means.....
And is tnifoil hat a reference to Signs?
I'll never keep up!
Shelley
"ick factor"?? Really?? Wow. :-)
Man, those words make me feel old. But I love the sound of rotoscoped! :o)
Thanks for sharing!
I know some folks get their knickers in a twist when new slang shows up in the dictionary, because they don't realize the purpose is to be descriptive (how a word is used), not prescriptive (how it *should* be used). Isn't OED's rule that a term has to show up in print a certain number of times to be short listed for possible inclusion? Some of the chat acronyms seem long overdue.
My personal fave is "dot-bomb"--meaning failed internet companies and ventures? Awesome.
Your poem is too cute, la la la girl.
Shelley: Ha! Rotoscoped has far less ick factor than you'd think. It's an animation process tracing over live-action film.
Shannon: Yes!!! :)
Jackee: I love how language grows. Although, it can be hard to keep up!
Laurel: I don't know OED's rules but I do believe they've always been about keeping up with the living language. And, yup, that's what dot-bomb means. Makes me smile.
Donna: Ha, thank you. It was a bit silly but fun.
OMG.
Suzy: Precisely. :D
I love my dictionary. It's thick and full of modern cool words. Is it wrong to love your dictionary so much?
I guess I'm so out of the loop that I NEED a dictionary for some of those terms!
Awesomely cool post, Pat. I'm glad we have been validated. Although I don't text as much as most. My little fingers get numb. :-)
This poem is so funny. Love it!
Clarissa: I love mine, too. Both my dictionary and my thesaurus sit at my feet and get picked up all the time, although I use the quick Word dictionary, too, when in a document. Love.
Bridget: Yeah, I did, too. But I love learning new words and some are so much fun.
Robyn: Hee-hee. Glad you like. I don't text that much either but the short-cuts make their way online, too. :D
Have you read Simon Winchester's "The Professor and the Madman"? It's the story of the making of the OED. Fabulous. Of course, I've loved every word Winchester has written. The guy is brilliant. He can make anything fascinating.
Hi Sybel! No, I haven't read it, but I imagine it's fascinating. I confess that I don't read much non-fiction anymore unless it's research. I'll have to check that out someday.
So fun! Language evolution is fascinating. What a surprise that text-talk has made it to the Oxford English Dictionary. Your poem is hilarious.
You know, Tigger was doing text talk with TTFN long before anybody had the ability to text, so it isn't just cell phones that got people abbreviating things. I love dictionaries :)
Hi Pat/Tricia, Congrats! There's an award waiting for you on my blog. :-)
Love your poem. These new words will take Scrabble to a whole new level! ;)
Your verse was brilliantly funny! None of this seems too weird to me since I live with 2 teenagers and write for them too.
Faith: Thanks! I'm tickled by their list and had such fun with this.
Sherrie: You're so right! I'm sure we'd find abbreviated speak throughout the ages.
Thank you, Maria. I'll be on over!
Suzanne: Ooooo, will Scrabble fans heart this or hate it?
SarahL: Ha, thank you! You're on the cutting edge.
Ick Factor! I love it! I may have to use this one tomorrow.
LOL the things we let in our vernacular these days (lord I feel old)
Talli: I burst out laughing when I saw that.
LisaGail: It's fun, though, isn't it?
I'm laughing so hard right now... I'm slightly less than thrilled that the Oxford English Dictionary validated some of these phrases and words. They are so random! I guess if people keep using them, though...
I can't wait until the dictionary recognizes ":)" and other emoticons as words of their own. That'll be the day.
yeah, some of those words are a pretty strange choice.
I have the same problem with spaces!
Tracy: That day might be almost here! I mean, I heart you??? Yes, they did.
TerryLynn: Hey there. I discovered that when Blogger decides to horde the paragraph spaces, you can go into html and restore them, then publish directly from there. If you go back to Compose it takes them away again. Le sigh.
There were a few surprises in there for me! Love your post!
Okay, I'm going to look up some of those newbie words.
I'm having the same trouble with blogger. Not sure what they changed, but they need to unchange that one, quick!
Despite owning several mammoth American-English dictionaries, My go-to tome is a years old OED pocket edition. Trust me, it wouldn't fit into ANYONE'S pocket.
Love the new word additions. Maybe it's time for me to update. OED, I trust. Urban Dictionary online? Not so much.
Hi Barrie, thanks!
Linda: There are some strange ones in the list, for sure.
Yeah, Blogger, can be tempermental.
Viva: Ha! I love your 'pocket' edition.
When I grow up, I wanna be a dictionary.
My Blog
Catherine: Ha! And you can do some mighty fine illustrations for it, too.
Post a Comment