'Bling-Bling' Makes New Oxford Dictionary
Posted by Bruce Kahl on June
07, 2003 'Bling-Bling' Makes New Oxford Dictionary
Jun 6, 9:17 PM (ET)
LONDON (AP) - Khazi, minging, bling-bling? Not some crazy new dialect,
but standard British vocabulary, according to the latest edition
of the Oxford English Dictionary, published Friday.
The publishers said they have added almost 6,000 new words and
phrases that reflect 21st century life, including the frowner's
favorite, Botox, passion-enhancing drug Viagra and sambuca, the
aniseed liqueur served with a flaming coffee bean.
Among the 187,000 definitions in the latest edition, published
by Oxford University Press, there is also bevvy - British slang
for a beer; head-case, referring to a person who exhibits irrational
behavior; and bling-bling, a reference to elaborate jewelry and
clothing, and the appreciation of it.
Half-inch, Cockney rhyming slang for pinch, or steal, also makes
it into the dictionary this time around.
Some of the new terms, including cut-and-paste, screensavers and
search engines, reflect the growing influence of computers, while
hands-free phones and phreaking, the expression for hacking into
phone systems for free calls, acknowledge developments in telecommunications.
Other corporate-speak considered established enough for inclusion
in the dictionary includes dot-coms, or Internet companies, and
blipverts, subliminal TV adverts of just a few seconds' duration.
And J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional world in "The Lord of the Rings"
is also recognized. Orcs are defined as "members of an imaginary
race of ugly, aggressive human-like creatures." The dictionary says
the word probably comes from the Latin orcus meaning hell, or the
Italian orco, meaning monster.
Getting down to basics, the new dictionary now makes it all right
to describe the khazi (toilet) as minging (disgusting).
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