Wiki elevated to Oxford English
Dictionary
Read it and weep
By Lester Haines
Published Friday 16th March 2007 12:17 GMT
It's official: "wiki" is now a fully-fledged member of the English
lexicon, according to the latest update of the online Oxford
English Dictionary (OED).
OED chief editor John Simpson said in a statement: "Words
are included in the dictionary on the basis of the documentary
evidence that we have collected about them. A while ago this
evidence suggested that wiki was starting to make a name for
itself.
"We tracked it for several years, researched its origins
and finally decided it was time to include it in the
dictionary."
Wiki has come a long way from its Hawaiian roots, Reuters notes,
where "wiki wiki" means "quickly". The OED's principal editor of
new words, Graeme Diamond, explained: "That the word acquired a new
meaning is attributed to the fact that commenting and editing on
internet websites became faster."
Other new boys in the OED include "asswipe",
"bathorhodopsin", "claymation", "irritainment", "malware",
"technopreneur" and "zipperhead". And just in case our
pals across the channel think it's only they who are menaced by
foreign imports, our beloved mother tongue now embraces "Bangla",
"capoeira" and - by the Lord Harry and Saint George - "citron
pressé" and "crème fraîche". ®
http://www.oed.com/help/updates/Prakrit-prim.html
