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Do you fire up the e-cigarette if you’re feeling a bit meh?
Or maybe you leave the twitterati, throw on some jeggings or a skort and twerk on the dancefloor?
These are just some of the 500 new words added to the official Oxford English Dictionary.
And, perhaps surprisingly, ‘twerk’ is the oldest of the new additions.
Researchers found that the word then spelled ‘twirk’, was first used as a noun in 1820, describing a ‘twisting or jerking movement’.
The verb followed in 1848, and by 1901 the current spelling was in popular use.
Twerking, made popular by singer Miley Cyrus, is defined in the dictionary as dancing “in a sexually provocative manner, using thrusting movements of the bottom’.
Here are some of the new words:
Auto-tune: Device or software used to correct a singer if they hit a bum note
E-cigarette: A battery-powered cigarette-shaped smoking device containing nicotine
Handsy: A person who cannot resist touching others
Hyperlocal: Local to a very small area
Jeggings: Trousers with the stretch of leggings, but the appearance of jeans
Meh: Used to signal lack of enthusiasm, or a state of boredom. Popularised by The Simpsons in the 1990s
On-trend: Highly fashionable
Photobomb: To insert yourself into someone else’s photo uninvited
Twitterati: People who are highly active on Twitter, and tweet regularly
Webisode: A short online video of a longer-running series
http://www.bay.com.mt/index.php/world-news/293-feeling-meh-twerking-is-now-in-the-oxford-english-dictionary.html