It’s amazeballs what’s made it into the Oxford English Dictionary…

Shakespeare would be rolling in his grave. And Virginia Woolf would probably have written a book about the inanity of it all. Indeed, the English language is going to the dogs, judging by this year’s entries into the Oxford English Online Dictionary.

While the authority on English language is somewhat slow at adding postmodern diction to its hardcopy edition, it has no hesitation in injecting all manner of buzzwords and bastardised jargon into its online listings.

Words and terms that have made it into the OED this year include “amazeballs”, “adorbs” (nee: “adorable”), “cray” (as in “crazy”, just in case you’ve had your head in the sand), “listicle”, “side boob”, “hot mess” (strange, since that one’s been around for decades), “binge-watch” and “acquihire”.

Even abbreviations that have become ubiquitous on social media have found their place in the English lexicon for good, including the random likes of “YOLO” and “SMH” (and yes, we’re shaking our heads at that one, too).

The Oxford English Dictionary was first published 150 years ago, and contains some 600,000 words that span the 1000-year-old life of the English language. Every three months it updates existing entries and throws in some new words for good measure.

According to the dictionary’s website, new entries are based “on the contributions of an international network of readers who are on the lookout for instances of new words and meanings or other language changes”. These word investigators traipse everything from scientific journals to song lyrics, popular fiction to social networking sites for all that is hot, hip and happening in language and communication.

It sounds like an immense and intense task, but totes fun just the same.  Antonino Tati