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Internet Abbreviations Added To Oxford Dictionary 101

Posted by Soulskill from the stop-making-it-harder-for-me-to-criticize-my-mom's-emails dept.
f1vlad writes "Philologists have added popular internet abbreviations to the one hundred twenty-six year-old Oxford English Dictionary. Among these are the popular OMG, LOL, and FYI. 'Dictionary compilers said that although the terms are associated with modern electronic communications, some are surprisingly old. The first confirmed use of "OMG" was in a letter in 1917. "Things people think are new words normally have a longer history," Graeme Diamond, the dictionary's principal editor for new words, said Friday.'"
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Internet Abbreviations Added To Oxford Dictionary More

Internet Abbreviations Added To Oxford Dictionary

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  • On this day in internet slang history (Score:5, Informative)

    by elrous0 ( 869638 ) * on Friday March 25, 2011 @03:00PM (#35615874)

    March 25, 1952: Upon receiving a humorous letter from a friend, Wellesley College student Lucy Michaels wishes to write back and express how much the letter amused her. Unfortunately, having hurt her wrist the day before in a tragic lacrosse incident, Lucy is forced to abbreviate her feelings by simply scratching out the simple abbreviation "LOL" on a postcard with her off-hand, hoping to explain the abbreviation in a phone call later. History was made.

    It is to pioneers like Lucy Michaels and many others like her that we today owe our modern internet vernacular. Kudos to you, Lucy, and may you RIP.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Citation needed.
    • Singer: Real women of geeeEeeniuuus...
      Narrator: Today we salute you, Miss LOL inventor woman.
      Singer: Miss LOL inventer woman...
      Narrator: In March of 1952, upon receiving a humorous letter from a friend, you wished to write back and express your amusement.
      Singer: I'm laughing out loud!
      Narrator: Unfortunately, having hurt your wrist the day before in a tragic lacrosse incident, you were forced to simply scratch out "LOL" on a postcard with your off-hand
      Singer: But I'm not rolling on the floor!
      Narrator:

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Retron ( 577778 )
      What a load of rubbish. The Oxford English Dictionary actually says this about LOL:
      Pronunciation: Brit. /ll/ , /ll/ , U.S. /lol/ , /ll/
      Forms: 19– LOL, 19– lol.
      Etymology: Initialism

      The first L of LOL is sometimes also explained as the initial letter of laugh.
      (Show Less)
      colloq.
      A. int.
      Categories


      Originally and chiefly in the language of electronic communications: ‘ha ha!’; used to draw attention to a joke or humorous statement, or to express amusement.
      1990 Jarg

  • OMG (Score:2)

    by thebra ( 707939 )
    LOL! FYI I thought this was funny.

  • WTF! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by davidc ( 91400 ) <cdpuff&gmail,com> on Friday March 25, 2011 @03:05PM (#35615940)

    No WTF?

  • tinfoil hat also added (Score:5, Informative)

    by vroom ( 43 ) * Works for Slashdot <vroom AT blockstackers DOT com> on Friday March 25, 2011 @03:06PM (#35615962) Journal
    tinfoil hat [oxforddictionaries.com]'s new entry.

    noun
    humorous
    used in allusion to the belief that wearing a hat made from tinfoil will protect one against government surveillance or mind control by extraterrestrial beings:you don't need to be wearing a tinfoil hat to understand that your privacy might not be as private as you would think
    [as modifier] :the tinfoil hat brigade

  • FYI (Score:5, Interesting)

    by tverbeek ( 457094 ) on Friday March 25, 2011 @03:09PM (#35616012) Homepage

    FYI, FYI is hardly an "internet abbreviation". I remember hearing it back in the early 1970s (when I was very, very young, FYI).

    Possibly of more interest to the /. crowd is the fact that hentai is being added to the book.

    • Well, they do say that English rap^H^H^H forcibly takes new words from foreign languages. Although this word probably liked it.

      • Well, they do say that English rap^H^H^H forcibly takes new words from foreign languages. Although this word probably liked it.

        I think this is said about most living languages. Just look at all the English words making their way into spoken Japanese, for example. They start out being cute extra-cultural references, then they become popular and take on a life of their own in the new language. That's one of the wonders of living language. Oxford is just trying to keep up with it in their own, 30-year-delayed way.

      • Well, they do say that English rap^H^H^H forcibly takes new words from foreign languages. Although this word probably liked it.

        Well, given the poor language's upbringing, it's not really all that surprising. After all, it was the bastard offspring of Anglo-Saxon and Norman French (which has a rather sordid history all its own, involving Latin, Gallic, Goth, Vandal, Frankish and Norse).

      • The next time you want to say this, say it with style. I've gotten a ton of +5's out of this old gem:

        "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." - James Nicoll, in rec.arts.sf-lovers [google.com]

        That's actually a bit too timid; I'd say that English is a vocabulary vampire/zombie hybrid

    • also: Barnard's star, couch surf, dot-bomb, drill-down, ego-surf, RSA, and tinfoil hat

      See also: http://www.oed.com/public/latest/latest-update/ [oed.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eriks ( 31863 )

      Yup! FYI (1981)
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaFonefbApo [youtube.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by geekoid ( 135745 )

      No no, if' it ever appears on the internet, the internet had it first. "

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Shimbo ( 100005 )

      They give 'the Mote in God's Eye' as a reference from the 70's. It's in 'Cities in Flight' (1957) also.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by adenied ( 120700 )

      First use of FYI in the OED is 1941 in the Washington Post.

  • In other news (Score:5, Funny)

    by nebaz ( 453974 ) on Friday March 25, 2011 @03:12PM (#35616048)

    The Oxford Management Group, Lloyds Of London, and Finnish Yodeling Institute are very upset.

  • WTF added? (Score:5, Funny)

    by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Friday March 25, 2011 @03:15PM (#35616098) Journal
    When the first english dictionary was compiled by Samuel Johnson a London high society lady is said to have thanked him, "Thank you Dr Johnson, for leaving out certain words". Dr Johnson apparently replied, " I'm shocked, m'lady. You were looking for them?"

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by laejoh ( 648921 )
      Allow me, sir, to extent my most sincere contrafubularities for making this reference possible!

  • Well, OK. It was on the wall of my mom's basement. But it smells like a cave.

  • I think the next step forward is to start adopting acronyms of acronyms, as we often do in technology names (AJAX). Clearly it takes far too many keystrokes to express such emotions. And as a bonus we can build up fun chains of searches in the dictionary.

    OL = OMG LOL = Oh my god, laugh out loud.
    IW = IMHO WTH/F = In my humble opinion, what the hell.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by mcmonkey ( 96054 )

      Yeah, except those aren't acronyms. Maybe LOL, if you pronounce it lol. But the rest are initialisms.

  • Oh Great... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Haedrian ( 1676506 ) on Friday March 25, 2011 @03:26PM (#35616238)

    Now when I shout at someone for chatting to me using a ton of abbreviations ... they can point out that its in the dictionary now...

    • More likely, in 200 years when historians find an archive of the 2010 internet on an optical cube in someone's basement they will be glad that those words are still in the dictionary (perhaps listed as antiquated, but still there).

    • Or conversely, if you send an SMS to a more elderly or less tech-savvy member of your family... when they ask you can simply point to the dictionary.

      Now, if they have one of those cellphones with keyboards, however, they should be forming at least semi-coherent complete sentences.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by smcn ( 87571 )

      they can point out that its in the dictionary now

      As opposed to never talking to you again, on account of you being an uptight ass?

  • TFS -- tl;dr (Score:3)

    by by (1706743) ( 1706744 ) on Friday March 25, 2011 @03:28PM (#35616262)
    EOM

  • Before the early days of AIM, LOL meant little old lady and NAD meant no apparent distress. I don't know how far back that dates; I first read it in The House of God iirc.

    I just got a chuckle imagining one of my younger cousins trying to parse tHoG.
    -b

  • Incidentally, if you have a public library card, and said library allows online access, and subscribes to the OED Online, you may be able to use your library card number to access the OED either through your library site or at oed.com directly. It works both ways with the Columbus (OH) public library, but I use oed.com because the proxy arrangement at the library blocks the very cool javascript cross-referencing features of the OED. The OED Historical Thesaurus (part of the package) is truly wonderful.

  • IN a few years the contents of Urban Dictionary will be added to the Oxford English Dictionary as well.

  • There are several important counterpoint definitions that need to be added. There are some common chat-room abbreviations:

    AFK- 'away from keyboard'

    BRB- 'be right back'

    To these, need to be added:

    AK- 'at keyboard'- this should be typed every ten seconds or so into the chat channel so EVERYBODY knows you are still there.

    SRH- 'staying right here'- this, again, should be typed every ten seconds or so.

    NFC- 'nobody f*cking cares'- the appropriate response when anybody types AFK or BRB.

    This is important stuff and

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      Don't forget FOAD.

    • I don't think that sets the proper tone. For that one should add:

      YMCAAA: 'You might come across as a'. As in: YMCAAA noob!
      JAFOS: 'Just a figure of speech'. As in ROTFL! (JAFOS)
      EMSOL: 'Excuse me Sir or Lady'. As in: EMSOL WTF?

  • Was Ben Schumin behind this decision? Anyone know?

  • Does the OED include "OED"?

  • Things like this... (Score:3)

    by Grapplebeam ( 1892878 ) on Friday March 25, 2011 @05:15PM (#35617398)
    Make me REALLY hate time travellers.

  • Northern Mesopotamia, 5,000 B.P.

  • OMG OED, WTF? LOLZ! STFU & GTFO...YDTM (Your Dead To Me, while were just adding crap to the dictionary, why not just make up some new stuff to add)

  • 'Dictionary compilers said that although the terms are associated with modern electronic communications, some are surprisingly old. The first confirmed use of "OMG" was in a letter in 1917. "Things people think are new words normally have a longer history," Graeme Diamond, the dictionary's principal editor for new words, said Friday.'"

    Translation: "Harumph, whatever, people. You think we added it to our big book of words people say because people are saying them now? Hell no! Screw you and your new fangl

  • Thinking of all the abbreviations that are in use. My favorite is CYA.
  • Should of been added during the tech boom in my opinion, another reason they are behind the curve in my opinion and sites like wikipedia dominate. Jere http://www.thenerdblurb.com/ [thenerdblurb.com]

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