OMG Is Now Official

OMG! If you know the meaning of that exclamation, you probably won't be shocked that OMG is the latest entry into the famed Webster English dictionary (OMG already made it into the Oxford Dictionary in 2010) version 2011. It seems that OMG has been used often enough, long enough in speech and in varied citation references to be declared official. That is essentially the criteria of whether or not a new entry makes it into a dictionary. Thus, even idioms as silly as that one become recognized as off limits to English teachers' red pens when they are grading student homework papers.

OMG may seem to be something a Valley Girl teen coined on line, but it's actually not originally a tech term. It was first used in 1917 in a long published letter written by a famed British admiral, not by Paris Hilton or used the same way it is used (over used) today. But there were some other Internet inspired expressions given the stamp of approval by Webster this year .

How about, LOL, IMHO, and BFF? It's enough to make one learn another language. My favorite new entry for the year is the non tech appellation, "muffin top". Webster defines it as "a protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers. I prefer that to what we all know a muffin top is, old fashioned stomach flab. Please call me muffin top, not fatty.

Well, the nature of English is such that it must continually add even the silliest of words. An English dictionary evolves because the language is an amorphous one, one that adds frequently in order to stay vibrant. Unlike some other languages that are closed (French, for example), English does not discriminate on origin and welcomes new contributions from everywhere. The English vocabulary is one of the toughest to master because there are more words contained in it than any other language on earth. OMG!

What's interesting about the inclusion of OMG and other acronyms is that they are not really words. They are acronyms, or phrases or words...OMG..I am confused as to what they are. And this year a new type of "word" was added to Webster. It's that crazy heart symbol we all see on chat sites. Webster's Dictionary has now posted the little red symbol for a heart as a new "word".

OMG! I am confused and should probably ask Webster to please redefine one of it's long standing entries, "word". What exactly is a word? I will LOL if you try to define that one.