'Tweet,' 'Sexting' Among the Words Added to the Oxford English Dictionary

What better way to celebrate your 100th birthday than with a little sexting? Or a tweet?

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The Concise Oxford English Dictionary celebrated its 100th birthday by getting a little work done, adding modern-day terms to its pages. Sexting, retweet, cyberbullying, textspeak and woot (yes, as in “woot, woot”), were a few of the 400 words that were added for the 12th edition.

“These additions are just carrying on the tradition of a dictionary that has always sought to be progressive and up to date,” wrote editor Angus Stevenson in an online statement. Also added to the new version were the words domestic goddess, gastric band and slow food. As for fashion, “jeggings” was added, and is defined as “tight-fitting stretch trousers for women, styled to resemble a pair of denim jeans.”

Not only were new words added, but new meanings were also added for some words. For example, a new definition for “follower” has been added that reads, “someone who is tracking a particular person, group, etc. on a social networking site.” In the same way “cougar” has been updated to also mean “an older woman seeking a sexual relationship with a younger man.”

The first edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary was printed in 1911. We can only wonder what they would have thought of the addition of “mankini” to the dictionary.