The next time you write a formal essay, you would be able to use the words Twittersphere and ZOMG without getting penalized – well thats if your professor has updated their Oxford Dictionary. As of this week, these words have been approved and defined by Oxford dictionary.The ‘z’ in the acronym “ZOMG”, which is the short form of “Oh My Gosh”, is as a result of people typing z when they intend on pressing the shift function.
As technology has advanced and become more important in our daily lives, the use of acronyms used in Instant Messaging and social networking has become part of our vocabulary. According to The Oxford Dictionary blog “the world of computers and social networking continues to be a major influence on the English language”
Other words that have been added to the Dictionary include “social graph“, “unfollow“, “permalink“, “newb” and “lappy“. Personally, I have no objection to the inclusion of such terms as ZOMG, as long as they are not referred to as words but as acronyms.
As for other words like Twittersphere and unfollow, I think its a good addition to the dictionary, especially since they are used by most internet geeks, especially Twitterholics (Maybe one day the word would be defined by the Oxford dictionary).
Maybe the word “Technesstivity” would be added to the dictionary in a couple of months time also. Do you think more techy words should be added to the dictionary or you feel that they are unnecessary? Leave your thoughts and comments below
