YOLO Has Made It Into The Oxford English Dictionary

YOLO

by Ellie Wiseman |
Published on

On Monday it was announced that the team of wordsmiths at the Oxford English Dictionary have added over 100 new words to the dictionary and have made more than 1,000 revisions.

Among the newcomers is YOLO, popularised by Drake’s 2011 song ‘The Motto’, which is an acronym for ‘you only live once’ (not that it needed explaining).

Wondering why these new additions feel a little, well, 2014? It can take up to a year of research for the team to gather enough evidence to prove that a word is historically relevant and significant.

Other words that have newly made dictionary status are:

Moobs – man-boobs

Gender-fluid – a person who does not identify with a specific gender

Yogalates – a fitness regime that blends yoga and pilates

Fuhgeddaboudit – colloquial New York and New Jersey slang to mean ‘forget about it’, or to refer to something that is unlikely to occur

Vom – an abbreviation of vomit

The word ‘Dahlesque’ is also featured in the latest edition of the OED, meaning Dahl-inspired vocabulary, as a tribute to Roald Dahl himself who was born 100 years ago on September 13th 1916. Many of the words Dahl used in his fiction have also been added, such as splendiferous, scrummy, frightsome, golden ticket and Oompa Loompa.

We think the new additions to the OED are splendiferous, and we’re excited to hear the next list of new words due to be released in December.

READ MORE: The Reason Why You Find The Word 'Moist' Totally Gross

READ MORE: The One Word Women Should Never Use At Work

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