HuffPost Books
In 2013, the Oxford Dictionary added more than 2,000 new
words, and now the world's foremost authority on the English language includes
such entries as badassery, showrooming, live blog, emoji, bitcoin and,
naturally, twerking. The ubiquitous selfie moreover was named
Word of the Year by the OD after its use skyrocketed by 17,000%, and it soon
spawned an array of derivatives like belfie (a picture of your
behind), helfie (a 'hair-selfie'), and shelfie (the word
you'll need next time you take a picture of your own bookcase).
To language
purists, words like these are at best considered ungainly, and at worst
represent a collapse in language standards.
To less conservative English users,
they are just signs of the times, and new words of any type are exciting
reminders that the language is constantly developing and evolving. No matter
what you might think of them, however, there's no denying that, etymologically
at least, these words are a fairly uninspiring crop.
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