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OMG OED! UR SO DUM LOL! (IMHO)

Après moi, le déluge.

Quote:

OMG! The exclamatory online abbreviation has won the approval of the Oxford English Dictionary.

The term —short for "Oh my God" — is one of dozens of new entries in the authoritative reference book's latest online update.

Other Internet-inspired expressions given the stamp of approval include LOL, "laughing out loud"; IMHO, "in my humble opinion"; and BFF, "best friends forever."

The dictionary says that although the terms are associated with modern electronic communications, some are surprisingly old. The first confirmed use of "OMG" was in 1917.

Here's the entry, for those without access:

Quote:

Etymology: Initialism < the initial letters of ‘oh my God' (frequently as a graphic abbreviation).
The final element may sometimes represent gosh, goodness, etc.

colloq. (freq. in the language of electronic communications).
A. int. (and n.) Expressing astonishment, excitement, embarrassment, etc.: ‘oh my God!’; = omigod int. Also occas. as n. 1917 J. A. F. Fisher Let. 9 Sept. in Memories (1919) v. 78, I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis—O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)—Shower it on the Admiralty! 1994 Re: AW: Ryan & Lorna‥NOT in rec.arts.tv.soaps (Usenet newsgroup) 24 Sept., OMG! what did I say? 1997 C. Parker Joy of Cybersex 183 OMG Oh my God! 2006 Elle Girl Mar. 134/4 Is this ridiculous to anyone else? Are we dreaming? OMG, What is going on? 2009 R. V. Kozinets Netnography x. 183 All of it blogged and microblogged and promoted with lots of omgs and lols. 2010 Nottingham Evening Post (Nexis) 9 Dec. 15 OMG, it's Ken Barlow on my phone; I'm not worthy!
1917—2010

B. adj.
Causing or characterized by a reaction of astonishment, excitement, etc.; that might cause one to exclaim ‘oh my God!’ 1982 Los Angeles Times 15 Jan. i. 4/5 (advt.) You'll find the season's best tangelos and tangerines now at our famous produce stalls. We spotted some marked O-M-G Tangelos, about the biggest we've seen. 1999 OMG! Chicago 8/19 in alt.music.s-mclachlan (Usenet newsgroup) 20 Aug., She stood at the corner of the stage with this ‘girly’ happy OMG face. 2007 Houston Chron. (Nexis) (3 Star ed.) 31 July (Business section) 1 The iPhone is a very different device, and when you first start working with it, there's definitely an OMG! effect.

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Comments

Submitted by N.Beltov on March 25, 2011 - 2:13pm.

STFU! HTFG!

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Submitted by Unionist on March 25, 2011 - 2:21pm.

WTF is this thread going on about?

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Submitted by Catchfire on March 25, 2011 - 3:59pm.

Amazing that the first instance cited is from 1917, and the first instance in the modern usage is from a usenet group! It's like the OED is trying to be hip, young and fresh (like the Oscars getting James Franco to host) but it still reveals itself as the square older uncle who still wears bomber jackets.

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Submitted by West Coast Greeny on March 25, 2011 - 10:33pm.

I think *heart* (the symbol you might see on facebook) is the worst entry. Is there any precident for allowing a symbol into the dictionary?

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Submitted by Maysie on March 26, 2011 - 6:38am.

Hey, what's wrong with bomber jackets?

West Coast Greeny, I ♥ ya.

ROFLMAO

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Submitted by Catchfire on November 29, 2012 - 3:59pm.

Former OED editor covertly deleted thousands of words, book claims

An eminent former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary covertly deleted thousands of words because of their foreign origins and bizarrely blamed previous editors, according to claims in a book published this week.

Robert Burchfield's efforts to rewrite the dictionary have been uncovered by Sarah Ogilvie, a linguist, lexicographer and former editor on the OED.

Ogilvie worked for 11 years to research and write Words of the World, published by Cambridge University Press, which challenges the widely held belief that editors of the OED between 1884 and 1933 were Anglocentric Oxford dons obsessed with preserving the Queen's English, and that it was not until Robert Burchfield's four supplements, produced between 1972 and 1986, that the dictionary was opened up to the wider world.

"I observed a pattern, that actually it was the earlier editors who were dealing with words in a really enlightened way. They certainly weren't these Anglocentric, judging kind of editors – they were very sensitive to cultural differences and they seemed to be putting in a lot of foreign words and a lot of words from different varieties of English, which must have been amazing for that day when colonial varieties of English were just emerging," said Ogilvie.