Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Vernacular

Never heard of "TL;DR"? Then you're obviously older than 30. If you've learned English since young and you're having problem with new words, it just might be because of your age.

The list of new entries in the Oxford Dictionaries Online has been expanding faster than the waist size at your belly. Look at those slangs and shorthands that come with digital communication. See how they make communication easier - or not.

I've just read from the Washington Post that a "selfie" refers to a photograph of oneself, typically "with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website." It's not as if we don't have the term "self-portrait" in English. But "selfie" is another matter. It's hard to replace "selfie" by "self-portrait" without losing the meaning. Hard as putting panty hose on a porcupine.

That said, it would be important to set a quota for admitting new words. Evolution of lexicon is a series of flukes, some good, many bad. I admit it: words or acronyms like FOMO (meaning "fear of missing out," in case you aren't updated) always give me agita. I'm rock-solid certain that I have absolutely no fear missing out the word FOMO. That's also why I don't think we need "TL;DR" to indicate "too long; didn't read."

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