Ladies, don your jeggings. Men, slip into your mankinis. These styles are here to stay—or at least the terms are, according to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.
One hundred years after its original publication, this longstanding lexicon has released its 12th edition. In keeping with its mission to be an up-to-date language resource, the new dictionary contains 400 additional entries, many of which reflect current trends in science, technology, and, yes, fashion (sigh).
Here are a few of the dictionary’s new words:
cougar: n. an older woman seeking a sexual relationship with a younger man.
cyberbullying: n. the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.
denialist: n. a person who refuses to admit the truth of a concept or proposition that is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence.
domestic goddess: n. informal a woman with exceptional domestic skills, especially cookery.
jeggings: pl. n. tight-fitting stretch trousers for women, styled to resemble a pair of denim jeans.
mankini: n. (pl. mankinis) a brief one-piece bathing garment for men, with a T-back.
retweet: v. (on the social networking service Twitter) repost or forward (a message posted by another user). n. a reposted or forwarded message on Twitter.
sexting: n. informal the sending of sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phone.
slow food: n. food that is carefully produced or prepared in accordance with local culinary traditions.
upcycle: v. reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of higher quality or value than the original.
woot: exclam. informal (especially in electronic communication) used to express elation, enthusiasm, or triumph.
What do you think of the new terms? Will you retweet them—or are you a denialist?
Spread the word: It’s time to celebrate National Punctuation Day (NPD)! “A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semicolons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis,” National Punctuation Day is—for those of us in the business of words (copywriters, editors, journalists [really, anyone who communicates in writing …])—one of the best days of the year. Entering this paragraph incorporating 13 punctuation marks in the official NPD contest is how I’m observing this sacred day; how will you celebrate?
Filed by rebecca at 10:23 am under For the love of words
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