Oxford Dictionary hoovers lush new words

[Amelia]

Oxford Dictionary hoovers lush new words

Thursday, August 11, 2005

ABC NewsOnline

A host of new words have appeared for the first time in the latest edition of new Oxford Dictionary of English.

Do chuggers bother you when you want to rock up to a restaurant with your cockapoo to hoover a supersized ruby murray?

For those without a dictionary to hand, "rock up" means arrive, "cockapoo" is a mix between a cocker spaniel dog and a poodle, "hoover" means to eat something quickly, and "ruby murray" is rhyming slang for a curry.

Those are a sample of the new entries.

Also making their dictionary debut are "potty-mouthed" (meaning using or characterised by bad language), "lush" (very good) and "scopophilia" (sexual pleasure derived chiefly from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity).

Some words, such as "demographic" (a particular sector of a population) have become commonplace but only now make it into the dictionary.

They are joined by those emerging from new technology like "phishing" (fraudulently sending emails purporting to be from reputable firms to get individuals to reveal personal details).

Many of the new words are simply formed by mixing two others together, such as charity and mugger making "chugger" (someone who approaches passers-by in the street asking for donations for a charity) and "labradoodle" (a cross between a Labrador retriever and a poodle).

"To suit the pace of our lifestyle today there is a growing tendency to mix words together to make entirely new ones called blends," the dictionary researchers said.

They said there were now 350 ways of insulting someone - from "chucklehead" to "muppet" - ten times more than there were complimentary expressions, while there were 50 words for good-looking women, there were only about 20 for men.

-Reuters