Reports have emerged on Thursday, that twerk and a few other slang have been included in the latest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
Carnap, FLOTUS and scores of other new entries, including many introduced from Asia and from online slang, have also been added to the respected dictionary.
According to the editor of the OED, Danica Salazar, who spoke in London, the word twerk, a dance popularised by music stars and internet memes, actually dates back about 200 years as a combination of twist and jerk first spelled as “twirk”.
In his explanation, he stated that the use of twerk is used to describe a type of dance, which emphasises the performer’s posterior, noting further that it has its roots in the early 1990s in the New Orleans “bounce” music scene.
“Joining twerk in the updated online OED is the acronym FLOTUS, or ‘First Lady of the U.S.’
“A term that the First Lady, Michelle Obama, felt obliged to explain to London schoolgirls last week when she mentioned her FLOTUS Twitter handle,” he said.
Salazar also revealed that another word from the Philippines was presidentiable, meaning “a person who is a likely or confirmed candidate for president.”
He stated that throughout the years, Filipino English speakers have been adapting the vocabulary of this once foreign tongue, using it to express their own identity and way of life with many additions referring to specific elements of Philippine culture, such as greetings and terms of address.
“The boundless optimism of Filipinos and their unshakeable belief that things will work out in their favour in the end is reflected in the phrase bahala na.”
According to This Day reports, South Asia and South-east Asia also had new entries, where several hundred million people already use such terms.
Some other words popularised via the internet include crowdfunding, internaut, webisode and photobomb. Others are dartboard, tan line, young gun, South Korean, North Korean, Special Olympics, and self-immolate.