Oxford Dictionaries Online says Phablet, Twerk and Derp are real words now

Justin Kahn

Posts: 752   +6

oxford dictionaries online phablet twerk selfie derp odo srsly dictionary

Derp and twerk are real words now. No srsly they really are, Oxford Online says so. In the continuing spirit of adding ridiculous, made-up internet words to the dictionary, Oxford Dictionaries Online is officially adding a new batch of real winners.

These are terms driven by social networking and a product of new movements in pop culture (and also incrementally ruining the English language as we once knew it).The latest entries include: selfie, phablet, twerk, derp, vom and bitcoin. To give you a quick idea of some past entries, Oxford has also accepted terms such as tweeping, lolz, and mwahahaha.

Oxford Dictionaries Online seems to take pride in keeping up with modern slang. Oxford is responsible for both the Oxford Dictionaries Online and the more well known Oxford English Dictionaries. As you would imagine, these changes are not being implemented into the English Dictionary. In fact, Oxford never removes words from that publication, no matter how out-dated and out of use they become.

Other new entries included srsly, squee and TL;DR.

You likely already know the meaning of most of these, but you can check out a quick sampling of Oxford's take below: 

• phablet, n.: a smartphone having a screen which is intermediate in size between that of a typical smartphone and a tablet computer.

• derp, exclam. & n. (informal): (used as a substitute for) speech regarded as meaningless or stupid, or to comment on a foolish or stupid action.

• twerk, v.: dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low, squatting stance.

• selfie, n. (informal): a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

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We should be making fun of words and people that are dumbing down our languages, but no, let's add them to a dictionary. A couple from years from now, I can imagine people, especially young ones, blabbering yolo, swag, kerp, derp, twerk,...it's not even funny anymore.
 
I've never understood Derp, is it Duh + Burp? Sadly I just learned what Twerk is, apparently Miley Cyrus was doing it. I feel old.
 
Language evolves. Old English would probably be incomprehensible to us. I imagine that someday the language that we speak will be referred to as Middle English.

Plus, the point of the dictionary is to be able to look up the meaning of something that somebody says or reads. If a non-native speaker heard the sentence "Hey, look at this derp twerking on my phablet!" it's nice to have a resource for them to understand what the person said before smacking them upside the head.
 
We should be making fun of words and people that are dumbing down our languages, but no, let's add them to a dictionary. A couple from years from now, I can imagine people, especially young ones, blabbering yolo, swag, kerp, derp, twerk,...it's not even funny anymore.

Lacking syllables or refinement doesn't disqualify an expression from being a legitimate word. In fact, the English language has developed like this (become more simplistic) for centuries.

What we should all be worried about is the inevitable day when grammar becomes a lost art. Given what's seen on the Internet and in schools these days, I worry that day is just around the corner.
 
Language evolves. Old English would probably be incomprehensible to us. I imagine that someday the language that we speak will be referred to as Middle English.

Plus, the point of the dictionary is to be able to look up the meaning of something that somebody says or reads. If a non-native speaker heard the sentence "Hey, look at this derp twerking on my phablet!" it's nice to have a resource for them to understand what the person said before smacking them upside the head.

True. The only things we're assured of in life is change, paying tax & dying. Old English I can mostly understand, but ancient English, now that's something else.
 
Idiocracy is an incredibly stupid movie... then you think about it for a few minutes after the credits roll and you get really scared. It's so possible that it's scary.

This is why I make all my friends watch the movie.
 
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