Samizdata - 2:16 pm on Apr 11, 2011 (gmt 0)

I don't understand why it's a word

I can agree with your sentiment insofar as I will never allow the word "LOL" to pass my lips (to me that would be doubleplusungood) but the fact is that a dictionary is merely a collection of words already in use by people who speak (and create) the language. If people vocalise "LOL" - and apparently some do - then it becomes a word, regardless of how stupid they sound.

It is not even a "chicken and egg" question - spoken words come first and dictionaries then record (not prescribe) them. To quote from the article:

"The death of the dictionary" is how one blogger greeted its induction to the bastion of English.

The word "blog" was first added to major dictionaries in 2005.

Many of us here had blogs well before that.

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