Over 900 new words added to Oxford dictionary

LONDON: Over 900 new words and phrases have been added to the Oxford English dictionary (OED). They include a swear word and words born in the Facebook and Twitter era like bestie (best friend) or bookaholic (a habitual and prolific reader). Tick-tock is another jargon that has entered the OED. Alluding to the characteristic sound of a clock, a tick-tock is a work of journalism which presents a detailed chronology of events. In American elections, voters usually vote for numerous offices, ranging from the local school board to the President of the US, at the same time and on the same ballot. Ballots are consequently very long, but the various electoral races tend to be placed in descending order from national to state to local. This arrangement has given rise to the adjective down-ballot, which is used to describe the less prominent contested offices listed near the bottom of the ballot. This adjective has been added to the dictionary as well. Katherine Connor Martin, the OED's head of dictionaries, has written a series of notes to accompany the March 2014 list and explain some of the more bizarre imports. She wrote, "Wackadoo and wackadoodle are elaborations of wacky, wack or wacko, used to refer to people regarded as eccentric. The phrase crap shoot arose in American English in the late 19th century to refer to a game of dice (or 'craps'). Nowadays, that original use is relatively rare, but the term has become very common in a figurative use, denoting a situation or undertaking regarded as uncertain, risky or unpredictable."   TOI