A slew of new words, including “bloggable”, “scareware” and “onliner”, have made it to Oxford Dictionaries for the first time, thanks to the worldwide Web’s increasing influence on the English language.
The new entries include the words “scareware”, which means malicious computer programmes, “trackpad” (touchpad) and “buttload” (a large amount). Other new words or phrases in the past nine months include “bloggable”, defined as a suitable topic for blogging, and an “onliner” (an Internet user).
More commonly used Internet words, “cyberbullying” and “cybersecurity”, have also appeared for the first time. The sinister practice of “clickjacking” (manipulating a user’s activity by concealing hyperlinks) is another newcomer in the Oxford Dictionaries online, the Daily Telegraph reported. Oxford Dictionaries also recognised hundreds of other new words and phrases created by mobile phone texting. These include “sexting” (sending explicit images or messages), “tbh” (to be honest), “feature phone” (a mobile phone with extra features) and “fnarr fnarr” (sniggering in textspeak).
New entries unrelated to the worlds of the Internet or texting include “tanorexia” (an obsessive desire to get a tan), “jazz hands” (a gesture with hands waved to express excitement) and “trolleyed” (extremely drunk). The new entries also include words that seem to have been present in the language for a while, including “gastric band” (device for the surgical treatment of obesity), “rumour mill” (the process by which rumours are originated) and “light-bulb moment” (a moment of sudden realisation).
Dictionaries’ spokesperson Gabby Fletcher said: “The rapid development of technology creates multiple new products, services, and functionalities, which all need new terms to describe them. We are also seeing the very fast circulation of new vocabulary with the expansion of social media.”