On the Heels of “Twerk”, Oxford English Dictionary Considers Several New Silly Words

In a recent interview with Wordability, Senior Editor at Oxford Dictionaries Fiona McPherson shed some light on words that are “on the radar” for possible future inclusion in the OED. While a serious discussion about the word “bacne” is kind of hilarious, every English teacher you’ve ever had just felt a great disturbance in the Force.

These new words tell us a great deal about who we are as a society. We apparently have enough acne that we need official words to get more specific about where it is. We’re so indecisive that we need “dosant” to describe a food that is both a donut and a croissant. Do they mean cronut? Will dosants give you bacne?

We choose to pay attention to our phones over our friends so often that just one word for it won’t do. No, we need both “phubbing” and “nocialising.” You wouldn’t want to sound redundant while posting on Facebook and Twitter about your day of ignoring real human contact.

Society is going in a great direction.

(via Wordability, image via Tom Hynds)

Meanwhile in related links

• Twerk is not just a word or a dance, but a game you can play involving Miley Cirus’s booty
• We think Twerk’s definition could have been better, though
• Not to be outdone, Google added an entry for the sarcastic use of the word “literally”