Oxford English Dictionary Adds OMG, LOL to Lexicon

The heart symbol also becomes the first graphical entry in the 127-year-old authoritative tome.

Richard Chenevix Trench is likely not ROFL’ing in his grave. The original editor of the Oxford English Dictionary could hardly have anticipated the handy abbreviations that have become commonplace in the age of texting and instant messaging, but the latest edition of the famous reference book includes a slew of new words reflecting our digital times. OMG, LOL, and [heart] have all entered the work, as has “ego-surfing,” a term that denotes searching for one’s own name on the internet. The dictionary was officially updated Thursday, and contains 45,437 new words and meanings. Among them is “muffin top” (“a protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers”).