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Internet Abbreviations Added To Oxford Dictionary

Posted by Soulskill on from the stop-making-it-harder-for-me-to-criticize-my-mom's-emails dept.

f1vlad writes "Philologists have added popular internet abbreviations to the one hundred twenty-six year-old Oxford English Dictionary. Among these are the popular OMG, LOL, and FYI. 'Dictionary compilers said that although the terms are associated with modern electronic communications, some are surprisingly old. The first confirmed use of "OMG" was in a letter in 1917. "Things people think are new words normally have a longer history," Graeme Diamond, the dictionary's principal editor for new words, said Friday.'"

2 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. tinfoil hat also added by vroom · · Score: 5, Informative
    tinfoil hat's new entry.

    noun
    humorous
    used in allusion to the belief that wearing a hat made from tinfoil will protect one against government surveillance or mind control by extraterrestrial beings:you don't need to be wearing a tinfoil hat to understand that your privacy might not be as private as you would think
    [as modifier] :the tinfoil hat brigade

  2. FYI by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    FYI, FYI is hardly an "internet abbreviation". I remember hearing it back in the early 1970s (when I was very, very young, FYI).

    Possibly of more interest to the /. crowd is the fact that hentai is being added to the book.

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