Oxford English Dictionary accused of dumbing down after including slang words such as ‘sumfin’ and ‘whatevs’
THE Oxford English Dictionary has been accused of dumbing down after including a string of slang words such as “sumfin” and “whatevs”.
Word boffs have also listed “summink” and “sumthin” as variants of “something” rather than mispronunciations.
And they define “whatevs” as a response to “indicate the speaker is disinclined to engage with, or is indifferent to the matter”.
A number of Star Wars-related terms have been included such as lightsaber, Jedi and The Force.
And in a nod to US President Donald Trump’s much-used term, fake news has been added as “the circulation of inaccurate and untrustworthy news stories specifically on social media”.
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But some were left stunned by the list of new words.
Dave Paxton wrote online: “Well, it’s the simplest solution. If you can’t maintain the level of education in this country, you might as well lower the standards.”
And a user called “1nails” added: “I spent more than a lot of my time at school learning to speak English. Now I despair the way people talk — all down to the slovenly American way that they speak English.”
Other new words in the dictionary are “nomophobia” (anxiety of having no access to a mobile phone) and “omnishambles” (a mismanaged situation).
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