Booksellers "chillax" as dictionary released.

19.08.10

Victoria Gallagher in The Bookseller

Booksellers can "chillax" as the wait for the new edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English is over.

The third edition of the largest single-volume English dictionary has been published today (19th August) for £39.99. The new dictionary will include more than 2,000 new items, from the explanation for "vuvuzela" (left) to the meaning of a "staycation".

The story has been picked up by all of the mainstream media, with the BBC News, Guardian and Mirror trumpeting the insertion of "vuvuzela" while the Daily Mail picks up on the use of "LBD".

With the ever-growing digital world many new words and phrases relate to the "interweb" with vocabulary such as "social media", "microblogging", "netbook", "paywall" and "tweet-up" gracing the pages of the tome.

Among the 200 new phrases to be added are "fog of war", "the glass is half full (or empty)" and "on the naughty step".

The dictionary was first published in 1998 with the second edition in 2003. One year's free access to Oxford's online English dictionary service is included with a purchase of the Oxford Dictionary of English.