'Retweet,' 'sexting' enter Oxford English Dictionary

[August 20, 2011]  LONDON (AP) -- Woot! The online expression of enthusiasm is now in the dictionary. So are "textspeak," "sexting" -- and, less happily, "cyberbullying."

They are among 400 new entries in the 12th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, published this month.

Also making the cut is "retweet" -- to repost another Twitter user's message.

Editor Angus Stevenson revealed the new entries in a blog post Thursday.

Unlike the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, the concise edition was founded to include modern and slang terms as they enter common use. Its first edition in 1911 included the then-new words "aeroplane," "motorist" and "flapper."

Stevenson said the new additions "are just carrying on the tradition of a dictionary that has always sought to be progressive and up to date."

[Associated Press]

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