The official Oxford Dictionaries website has added a host of new words and abbreviations to its database, with technology, popular culture, and food the major sources of the new terms.
A few favourites include describing someone as “hawt” (an informal spelling of hot) or “catnip” (from the effect catmint has on cats), and describing a double-denim outfit of a jacket and jeans being described as a “Canadian tuxedo”. And after “selfie” making the dictionary in 2013, it is only right that the pouty “duck face” pose followed this year.
The rapidly expanding influence of technology in our lives has resulted in a host of new words emerging in recent years, with “digital footprint”, “keyboard warrior”, lolcat making the website’s list this year. Gamers have also had an impact with “respawn” and “permadeath” both making their way into the English language.
The constantly evolving nature of gastronomy always makes it a hotbed of new terms, and this year was no different with the “five second rule” finally entering the list this year along with descriptive terms for specific foods such as “arancini” (fried stuffed rice balls) and “cappellacci” (pasta stuffed with pumpkin and folded into a hat-shape).