Technology Influences Influx of New Words

This week, the online Oxford Dictionary has released its latest intake of words and there has been a huge influence from social media and the internet.

Any new words, phrases or senses are always added to the OxfordDictionaries.com website once the editors are happy with the information they have gathered from independent evidence and are sure that these additions will be widespread.

Abbreviations that are regularly used on social media websites, like Twitter and Facebook are among the new words. One of those is YOLO – a popular abbreviation that stands for You Only Live Once.

Technology, understandably, has a strong influence on the English language with a large number of the new words being entered coming from gadgets or ‘tech-savvy’ people online. Some of these include geocache, octocopter, responsive, smartwatch and, as mentioned, tech-savvy.

But, what do some of them mean?

Smartwatch – This is something we have mentioned on a number of occasions on the blog and is a piece of technology we are a fan of. The smartwatch does exactly what it says on the tin and is a computerised wearable device that is enhanced beyond timekeeping.

Octocopter – This is a multirotor or multicopter with more than two rotors and looks like a small helicopter. This remote-controlled device is often used to carry cameras to improve video or imagery. There are a number of large brands that have started using similar devices, including Google and Microsoft.

Responsive – This one is for the web world and refers to a web design approach that is aimed at crafting sites to provide a convenient and optimal viewing experience. Responsive refers to a web site that is resized, reformatted and has an adapted navigation in order to suit a wide range of devices (i.e. mobile phones and tablets).

Tech-savvy – This can apply to a large group of people and means when someone is proficient in the use of technology, especially computers and other similar devices.

Words like tech-savvy, responsive and smartwatch are all terms we are very familiar with but words like YOLO and binge-watch (to watch a number of programmes in a box-set consecutively) are quite unusual.

What do you think about the new influx of words?