New words in English The Oxford Dictionary of English is a dictionary that tries to reflect words currently being used by English speakers. In this programme, Rob and Alice talk about new words which have recently entered the English language. This week's question: How many new words were added to the Oxford Dictionary of English this year? a) 100 b) 2,000 c) 10,000 Listen out for the answer in the programme. JavaScript is disabled! To display this content, you need a JavaScript capable browser. New words in English Alice: Hello! I’m Alice. I’m joined today by Rob. Hi Rob. Rob: Hello Alice. Alice: Today we’re talking about some of the new words which have entered the English language recently. Rob: These are words which have been added to the Oxford Dictionary of English this year. Alice: There are quite a few but we thought we’d pick some which you might enjoy using. But first – a question – Rob can you guess how many new words or phrases were added in this latest edition? Is it: 100, 2,000 or 10,000. Rob: I would think that there are thousands of new words every year but not all of them are added to the dictionary. Let me have a think about it. Alice: I’ll let you know at the end of the programme, but first let’s hear from Catherine Sommes from the Oxford English Dictionary talking about how they choose which new words will make it into the new edition. Extract 1: What we can do – we’ve got software tools that actually show how words are being used, how widely they’re being used, so it’s not just a question of numbers, it’s a question of different places it’s being used so everywhere from magazines, to newspapers to chatrooms. Alice: So the company have software tools which are able to monitor new words, how and when they are used. Rob: Catherine Sommes says it’s not just a question of numbers – they don’t just measure how often a new word is used Alice: And she uses that phrase again. It’s a question of different places – they also look at the different places where the word is used – for example she says in magazines, newspapers and chatrooms. Rob: So a word must be used in a variety of places. Alice: That’s right. In order to make it into the dictionary it can’t just be jargon – words which are specific to particular fields of interest. Many of the new words this year come from social networking. Here’s Catherine Sommes again to explain: Extract 2 Social networking as well is so huge – so we’re getting words in the dictionary now like de-friend, or un-friend which means take somebody off your friend list on a social networking site such as Facebook. We’re seeing lots of words like that come into the language now. Alice: Rob have you heard the words ‘de-friend’, or ‘un-friend’? Rob: I’ve never used them myself but I know what they mean! Alice: If you remove someone from your friend list on social networking sites you might de-friend them, or un-friend them. It’s easy to make a new word just using the prefix de- and un- but it does sound a bit clumsy! Rob: How about blogging? Alice: Blogging has been in the dictionary for a while – but what about micro- blogging? That’s a blog which is really small – it could just be a sentence, a quick video-link or an image. Rob: Now, Alice, Do you know what a dictionary attack is? Alice: No. Rob: It’s an attempt to find out your secret computer password by trying an enormous number of words which might unlock it. Alice: That sounds nasty! And so do some of the new words and phrases which come from talking about the problems in the world’s economy. Can you explain what toxic debt is Rob? Rob: I’ll try! It’s the phrase used to describe a class of assets which were once valuable – mortgages or financial products – which are now worthless. Alice: Pretty good! A toxic debt can be worthless or at least have a reduced value which is hard to find out. Here’s another one we’ve heard quite a lot over the last couple of years. Quantitative easing. That’s when governments put new money into the national money supply to ease pressure on the economy. Shall we have something more entertaining? My favourite new word is this one: Extract 3: Vuvuzela Rob: Aha – that’s probably what the year 2010 will be remembered for. The hum of the vuvuzela at the Football World Cup in South Africa. Alice: So Rob have you thought about the answer to my question at the beginning of the programme. How many new words do you think were added to the dictionary this year? Was it 100, 2000, or 10,000? Rob: I think 100 is too little, and 10,000 is too many. So I’m going for 2000. Alice: Well done! It’s actually slightly more than 2000 new words and phrases in this year’s edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. Shall we hear some of them again? Rob: Yes of course. And here’s some of the other language we heard in the programme: edition software-tools a question of chatrooms jargon social networking de-friend, un-friend micro-blogging dictionary attack toxic debt quantitative easing vuvuzela And we’ve got time to listen to Catherine Sommes from the Oxford Dictionary of English talking about the 2010 edition again: Extracts 1 and 2 (repeated) Alice: Well that’s all we’ve got time for today. Thanks for joining us and see you next time. Bye! . New words in English The Oxford Dictionary of English is a dictionary that tries to reflect words currently being used by English speakers. In this programme, Rob. this year come from social networking. Here’s Catherine Sommes again to explain: Extract 2 Social networking as well is so huge – so we’re getting words in the dictionary now like de-friend,. used in a variety of places. Alice: That’s right. In order to make it into the dictionary it can’t just be jargon – words which are specific to particular fields of interest. Many of the new words