'Wags' and 'hoodies' included in new dictionary
Monday, 4 June 2007
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Wags and hoodies have made their official entrance into the English language, after being included in the 9th edition of the Collins English Dictionary.
The latest additions followed a search through a 2.5 billion-word database from books, newspapers, magazines, journals, websites and transcripts of radio and television programmes.
After dominating World Cup coverage from the sleepy German spa town of Baden-Baden, the England players' Wives And Girlfriends were judged to have penetrated the national consciousness, as has the term "hoodie", most famously employed by David Cameron in his "hug-a-hoodie" speech. A hoodie, states the dictionary, is "a young person who wears a hooded sweatshirt, regarded by some as a potential hooligan".
World events, such as "7/7" and "Beslan", are also added to the dictionary for the first time , while "Gitmo" is cited as the slang word for Guantanamo Bay. The "war on terror" has also produced a number of new words, such as "radicalising" and "Londonistan" - a reference to the UK capital being a base for radical Islamists.
A growing concern with the environment is reflected in new words and phrases such as "carbon footprint", "carbon offsetting" and "season creep", which is the changing of the length of seasons thought to be caused by climate change.
References to the internet range from the word "leetspeak", jargon used by internet groups where letters, numerals and symbols replace standard English, to "me-media" to describe personal online services such as You Tube, Facebook and MySpace.
Many of the new words are scientific or technological, including "Tamiflu", the oral anti-viral drug that attacks influenza, and "plasma screen" televisions.
The Collins English Dictionary 9th edition will be available in print, online, on mobiles and as a desktop application.
A spokesperson at Collins said that many of the words "will undoubtedly sink back into obscurity being bound up with today's ephemera, but others will take root."
