Social media and the internet continue to bloom and evolve, and technology fosters new slang. The most recognizable jargon we’ve seen recently include words like twerk, meme, cray, smh (shaking my head), and YOLO (Very sure you know what that means).   

Trendy slang comes and goes, but there are some words that to refuse to die out by etching themselves into the the Oxford online dictionary, as shown in an update log. Regardless, it still seems to upset certain people. People standing with disappointing faces and wagging fingers proclaim that it’s the downfall of proper English. Other people think that it creates a total cluster of confusion for people who are new to the English language. Oxford has responded to these kinds of people in their blog about the matter.

Oxford isn’t the only online dictionary to have embraced slang. The Huffington Post wrote about Merriam-Webster online dictionary also including slang words like clickbait, jeggings and of course, WTF.

I asked an English major his thoughts. “I am the kind of person to surf the web when I’m bored or busy, and occasionally I’d waste my day scrolling through teen-speak like quan and stuff like that, but it always got under my skin when I hear people actually talk like that in real life.”

I asked friends who didn’t learn English as their first language about their experience with ever-evolving slang. “I learned English long before I came to America, but I didn’t really know anyone else who knew good English. So, of course, I went online for help. All those lessons made my speech very formal and proper, I guess. Later I thought ‘Hey, why not watch American T.V and see if I pick out any words…’ I had to rearrange my entire vocabulary, researching everything I heard so that I seemed more casual.”

As informal, unnecessary and short-lived as many of these words may be, Oxford has successfully embraced a free language.