dictionary

"Jeggings", "sexting", "retweet" and "woot" are all official words now after being added to the most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Let's use these new words in a sentence!

got new jeggings. woot woot. every1 gonna b sexting me. retweet this if u want me ;)

R.I.P. Modern English (1550 - 2011)

[via Telegraph]

Fabolous presents the Urban Dictionary Word of the Day: "Procrasterbating".

Has anyone else noticed this?  Over the past couple weeks, Google has changed where their "definition" link leads.  Previously, when you clicked on the link, users were taken to Answers.com's dictionary.

Suddenly and without warning, you'll now find yourself directed to Google's own dictionary page.

Why the whining, nerd? you might be thinking to yourself.

Well, for one, Answers.com actually reads like a real dictionary.  Here is their definition for my least favorite word, "awry":

1. In a position that is turned or twisted toward one side; askew.
2. Away from the correct course; amiss.

Compare that to Google's definition:

1. If something goes awry, it does not happen in the way it was planned.
2. If something is awry, it is not in its normal or proper position.

Dear Google…  What the hell are you talking about??  What dictionary is written like that?  If something is retarded, it is written in prose similar to that being used by this new Google dictionary.

I understand that Google wants to control every facet of human existence, but until now, I didn't realize that meant altering the way we use the English language.

I guess the days of being able to check the definition of a word with my Google toolbar are over.  That makes me sad.

"If you are sad, you feel unhappy, usually because something has happened that you do not like."

F'in' right, Google!!!  F'in' right!

Here it is!  Your 2009 New Oxford American Dictionary's Word of the Year!

UNFRIEND

As in, "My friend tried to play UNFRIEND in our game of Scrabble, I challenged it, and he had to take it off the board because UNFRIEND is not a real word."

Sure, "unfriend" is a real word in the realm of Facebook, but Facebook is not a real place.  It is a virtual place.  Like where The Sims live or Green Bay.  You don't see Oxford adding the word "cheesehead" to the dictionary, because they usually don't add words from fake places.

But for some reason "unfriend" has slipped through the cracks and is now supposedly part of our lexicon.

What does that mean for us?

Absolutely nothing.  Oxford University Press is a bunch of oldfags.

[via Mashable]

Wordnik is a "an ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them." Unfortunately, by "everything" about words, they mean "everything on the internet" about words — which translates into "garbage" about words. Here's an example:

Okay, looks standard so far. But what can Wordnik offer me that a regular dictionary can't?