Oxford English Dictionary Adds Bling, Wi-Fi

The staff at the Oxford English Dictionary, keen to keep their online version relevant and happening, have added a whole mess of entries, including bada-bing and avian flu. While the avian flu has been killing people for a couple of years, the mobsters on the Sopranos have been killing fictitious people for six seasons. Why did they take so long to add the word?

The OED defines bada-bing as "suggesting something happening suddenly, emphatically, or easily and predictably". While they can date the term back to 1965, the inspiration for adding it to their online dictionary must have been the Sopranos... Frequent breaks for a "cuppa" can't possibly cause that much of a delay and they add new words to their online dictionary a whopping four times a year.

The latest update includes over a thousand words, "subordinate entries" and new meanings for current entries.

Some new words that caught my eye:

bling
breakout
Central Casting
Disneyfication
Disneyfied
drive-by
hard-ass
hard-assed
heightism
ill-deserved
Islamophobia
Jack
Photoshop
plug-in-and-go
pluot
point-and-shoot
politico-economically
self-harm
self-harming
vox
Wi-Fi

A few of the new "subordinate entries" added to existing entries:

under "analysis":
analysis paralysis

under "pledge":
pledge-mania

under "plot":
plot point
plot twist

under "plumber":
plumber's butt
plumber's crack
plumber's friend
plumber's snake

under "sex":
sex pest

under "snow":
snow angel

under "super-":
superfood

under "yum":
yummy mummy

Yummy mummy? They just let staffers, or possibly their children, toss in a few made-up words for fun, don't they? They don't take the online version entirely seriously, despite the elite Oxford name or the snooty subscription-only access, do they? Humph!

Paul Van Dyk - Words (Original Version Radio Edit) (available on Perspective - A Collection Of Remixes 1992-1997)

Foo Fighters - Breakout (available on Greatest Hits)

Tom Petty - Jack (available on Highway Companion)