Lexicographers have added a fresh round of tech jargon such as “thx” to Oxford’s online English dictionary.
Some of the latest additions by the Oxford Dictionaries include familiar words such as “tweetable” and “social sharing,” referring to people’s growing need to post every piece of daily trivia to the Internet.
Other words like “dumbphone,” and “touchles” have also made it to the dictionary, the ‘TechNewsDaily’ reported.
According to Oxford, “touchles” refers to gesture-control devices such as Microsoft’s Kinect gaming accessory that uses a camera to interpret body motions for game-play.
Still other entries might have people turning to Oxford on-line to check definitions. “Cruft,” a new addition means badly designed or unwanted software.
“Range anxiety,” another term in the lexicon will surely be heard more frequently as electric cars become more common and drivers worry whether they’ll make it to their destination before the car’s battery dies.
Each new word and phrase added to Oxford goes through a fairly rigorous assessment, whether it began as a suggestion from the public or if the Oxford team itself suggested the word.
If a proposed entry is used by just one segment of the population, like young teens, it’s disqualified. If it’s a trademark, it must have broader use, such as generic use as a verb.
Oxford consults specialists when necessary, and the dictionaries’ editors review propose entries. Those that make the cut are added to the on-line dictionary, and later, to printed versions.