The words “twerk” and “selfie” have recently been added to the Oxford Dictionaries Online. These two words join other pop culture words that have been added from the past such as “jeggings” and “totes.”
While the Oxford Online Dictionary focuses mainly on current language and practical uses of words, the Oxford English Dictionary focuses on how words have changed over time.
The addition of these informal words have some people upset about the legitimacy of these terms.
The English language, as with all living languages in general, is fluid and always changing: words are added, modified and sometimes removed. The addition of these words is not a recent phenomenon.
“The process might be quicker now because of all the immediacy of technology, internet and social media,” English teacher Pat Thornhill said. “That may be speeding it up to some degree, but it’s certainly not a new thing.”
Some words are created as new things are created, and new words are needed to describe these objects.
A good example of this is “Google” used as a verb. Googling came to be once people started using the search engine widely. The word stuck, and therefore caught the eye of dictionary editors.
“It’s certainly true that if we have a thing that enters into our consciousness, then we have to have a way of naming that thing,” said slang and vernacular expert Dr. Connie Eble of UNC-Chapel Hill.
Other words simply come from people giving things new names.
“Most of the words we get in language are not because we get new things, they’re just because we get tired of something and the name we have attached to it, and we make up another for it,” Eble said.
Words are not just admitted into the dictionary based off dictionary-makers’ personal opinions, but rather
based off evidence of the word being used.
“Dictionary makers record what is observed about the language that the dictionary is done in. They don’t collect words or decide words will be in or out based on preference, but based on a collection of citations of words,” Eble said.
Eble feels that people getting upset about word additions may not understand the process by which words get added.
“People think we have given over our right to decide what is right or wrong in our language to dictionary makers. I can tell you the dictionary makers are the last people in the world that want that right,” Eble said.
According to Eble, dictionary editors are not the ones that regulate the English language.
“They are highly educated people, and highly knowledgeable people,” Eble said. “They do not consider themselves the ‘arbiters’ of what is English and what is not English, what is correct and what isn’t correct.”
– By Tyler White