September 14, 2011
Woot! “Mankini” makes it into the dictionary
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?
Filed by rebecca at 11:28 am under For the love of words
That mankini has got to be banned. I can’t believe it exists enough to warrant an entry into the dictionary!
On the other hand, retweet makes perfect sense and sexting is rather clever. Woot drives me bananas and I’ve never used it, and denialist sounds…made up. I don’t like it. I’m denying it existence in my vocabulary.
I couldn’t resist commenting
Steph - So good to hear from you!
Mankini has its place as a silly term for a silly garment, but, in my opinion, including it in the dictionary somehow cheapens our language. (And do men really wear them?!)
I sure hope they don’t. I’ve only ever seen one man, Borat, I believe, wear one. And maybe John Mayer. But a couple of celebrities wearing one…does that really warrant an entry? Were those instances so noteworthy in the grand scheme of things?
Ah, well.
Bill said “uuck” to everyone of these!! Lol
But doesn’t he have a mankini?