Put down your smartwatches and stop live tweeting on your second screens, you tech-savvy, time poor YOLO enthusiasts! ICYMI, the Oxford Dictionary has just added a whole hot mess of new words the likes of which is sure to get all you members of the linguistics fandom hotter than a bro hug between two neckbeards.
But lets not make any bones about it here, this isn’t some listicle designed as little more than clickbait to drag your hyperconnected butt out of the anti-vax rabbit hole you fell down in the Deep Web. So you can stop giving us the ole’ side eye right now, SMH.
The Oxford adds a new batch of words to the dictionary every so often to reflect the true nature of humanity and its use of language in current times. This is opposed to the Macquarie Dictionary, which applies a more rigid look at the English language. Which means the Oxford is more or less trying to cover up some slight instances of douchebaggery with a humblebrag about how much cooler it is.
Turns out the Oxford is something of a fast follower when it comes to new words – something the rest of us just kind of hate-watch – and instead of throwing shade or posting some snide subtweet about it, embraces the change through a little bit of strategic sentiment analysis and puts clear definitions on everything that we’re saying. Which, to be honest, is actually kind of adorbs.
I guess when you live in a world where it’s possible that live news time can potentially be dedicated to someone mansplaining his way out of the time he got caught on a hot mic leering at a weather presenter’s side boob, then you’ve really got to do a little acquihiring of language in order to avoid doing a spit take every time someone says something a wee bit cray, doncha reckon?
So in that sense, adding new words to the dictionary versus sticking to what’s perceived as being “traditional” is a bit like challenging yourself to hold down a Paleo or 5:2 Diet in order to get fit enough to belt out a mud run, versus staying at home with your vape or your e-cig and binge-watching the same old shit over and over again because it’s safe and you’re used to it and FML.
But, ultimately, I think we can all agree that language is pretty gosh darned amazeballs, and its constant evolution is definitely worthy of an air punch, wouldn’t you say?
Do you guys agree? If not, WDYT?
