Keeping up with… the language!

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tweet-oxford-english-dictionary-2From now on, the word “tweet” is no longer only used to define bird singing. The Oxford English Dictionary has officially recognised the term “tweet” in its social – networking sense.

Although the word “tweet” has been part of the Oxford English Dictionary since 1851, to define “the chirp of a small or young bird”, from 2013 the entry will be expanded to include: a verb “to make a posting on the social networking service Twitter”; and a noun “a posting made on the social networking service Twitter”.

The inclusion of this new definition for the word tweet breaks one of the current Oxford English Dictionary rules, since according to John Simpson, Chief Editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, “a new word needs to be current for ten years before consideration for inclusion”.

Technology-related words are a trademark for this latest edition. The list for the June 2013 edition include entries such as “stream”, “e-reader”, “big data”, “crowdsourcing”, “mouseover” and “redirect”. Beside these examples other terms such as, “dad dancing”, “epic”, “fiscal cliff”, “flash mob”, “geekery”, or “silent treatment” are also defined.

*image taken from the Oxford English Dictionary

Article written by Júlia de Sousa, trainee at TermCoord