Dale’s Daily Data: OMG Is In The Dictionary LOL

It’s now official – there’s a growing list of internet abbreviations that are now part of the English language.  OMG, LOL and FYI have been added to the online editions of the 126-year old Oxford English Dictionary. 

In case you were living under a rock and don’t know what those abbreviations stand for – OMG is “Oh My God”, LOL is “Laughing Out Loud” and FYI is “For Your Information”.

Also added was IMHO “In My Humble Opinion”, BFF “Best Friends Forever” and WAG “Wives And Girlfriends”.

Even those terms are usually associated with internet usage, at least two of those terms are very old.  There’s evidence that OMG was used as early as 1917.  LOL at one time meant “Little Old Ladies”.

Other words and terms added to the Old English Dictionary are “muffin top” described as a “protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers”.  And it now allows heart to be used as a verb as in “I (the symbol for heart) New York).

In addition to new words, the on-line Old English Dictionary has revised the meanings of 1,900 other words.