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June 16, 2013

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'Tweet' and 'dad dancing' make OED

"TWEET", "dad dancing" and "geekery" are three of more than 1,200 new or revised words in the latest version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) released on Friday.

The dictionary said in a quarterly update on its website that it had expanded entries for "follow" (verb), "follower" (noun), and "tweet" (noun and verb) to include social media terms that have exploded in the past six years.

According to the dictionary, "tweet" is now a posting on the social networking service Twitter, as well as a brief high-pitched sound.

"This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for 10 years before consideration," said the OED's chief editor John Simpson in a statement.

Also earning a place among the OED's 823,000 entries are "geekery" and "dad dancing."

"Geekery" has been updated from a rarely used term for bizarre circus acts in favor of an obsessive devotion to or knowledge of a particular subject or pursuit and also the state of being a geek.

And "dad dancing" is defined as "an awkward, unfashionable, or unrestrained style of dancing to pop music, as characteristically performed by middle-aged or older men."






 

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