'Twerking’ made the dictionary. Isn’t that adorkable? But the 2014 word of the year...
Computers may underline these words in red and teachers will likely feel a little naseous if they turn up in an exam paper, but Collins dictionary has deemed some contemporary slang worthy of a place among their pages.
In their latest edition, Collins have included ‘twerking’, ‘adorakable’, ‘selfie’ and ‘photobomb’ among the 722,000 words which make up their dictionary. These are just a few of the estimated 50,000 new words included in the 12th edition.
The Not The One Show panel discuss whether these new words demonstrate the fluidity of language or whether they’re fads which will soon be forgotten and, ironically, antiquated.
Some of the other new words to be included in the 12th edition are:
- al desko - (a meal, esp lunch) at one's desk at one's place of work
- Bitcoin - a system of open source peer-to-peer software for the creation and exchange of (payment in) a certain type of cryptocurrency.
- kawaii - a Japanese artistic and cultural style that emphasizes the quality of cuteness, using bright colours and characters with a childlike appearance
- meme - an idea or element of social behaviour passed on through generations in a culture, esp by imitation
- photobomb - to intrude into the background of a photograph without the subject's knowledge
- preload - to consume alcoholic drinks at home before going to a social gathering
- textonym - one of two or more words that can be generated by pressing the same key combinations on a mobile phone: 'kiss' and 'lips' are textonyms
- twerking - a provocative dance performed by moving the hips rapidly back and forth while standing with the feet apart and raising and lowering the body in a squatting motion
- vape - to inhale nicotine vapour (from an electronic cigarette). Thus vaping, and vaper (one who vapes).
