Poll: LOL and OMG are now words?

[Xelt]

LOL (lol) and OMG (omg) have both been put into the Oxford English Dictionary.
I think this is sad news and they should have been kept to the internet, you can't even say lol when smiling or laughing, so it's it's effectively...pointless, unless you use it like a slow clap, as mentioned in the article.
What are your opinions on this?

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12893416

 

[Saelune]

But they are NOT words...they are...well, i dont remember the actual word, but they are multiple words.

 

[AnOriginalConcept]

They are acronyms that are slang.

 

[Xelt]

Acronyms, but they're been classed as words now, they're in the dictionary.

 

[Gigano]

Well, if the dictionary doesn't contain the words commonly being used by people who use the language it covers (be it as spoken or written words), then it becomes kind of moot itself.

Language evolves, and it's a dictionary's job to keep track of that evolution. About time it included some of the most common phrasings being used by millions upon millions of people on the net.

 

[Angryman101]

They're acronyms. Commonly used acronyms and slang (such as D'oh from the Simpsons) are put in the dictionary fairly often.

 

[Klitch]

I kind of get the impression that dictionaries have been desperately trying to cling to relevance in recent years, starting with my discomfort at them including Stephen Colbert's "truthiness" as a word a few years back. I love Colbert but people shouldn't be allowed to create real words just because they're famous.

Anyways, I haven't cracked open a dictionary since the day I discovered spell check on Microsoft Word.

 

[StriderShinryu]

Should they be there? No, not a chance. First because they aren't actually words, and second because, even if they were words, I highly doubt they'll have any lasting sort of impact on language. In 10 years we'll still be using most of the words in the dictionary but no one will be saying OMG or LOL.

 

[Sonicron]

Linguist input time!

LOL and OMG are words. Both are abbreviations; the first is an acronym, the second an initialism. In any case, no matter the detail of analysis, both of these morphemes are subject to set word formation processes, and are rightly classified as words.
Not particularly pleasing ones, I grant you, but words nonetheless.

-EDIT- To clarify: Only LOL is an acronym, OMG is not. The rule is quite simple: If you can pronounce the abbreviation as a word according to the phonetic properties of the language, it's an acronym, but if you cannot and have to spell out every single letter of the abbreviation in order to pronounce it, it's an initialism.

 

[Nikolaz72]

Should they be there? No, not a chance. First because they aren't actually words, and second because, even if they were words, I highly doubt they'll have any lasting sort of impact on language. In 10 years we'll still be using most of the words in the dictionary but no one will be saying OMG or LOL.

Except for 14year old girls in their diary-assigment. . . Lol will not actually be valid.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, if the dictionary doesn't contain the words commonly being used by people who use the language it covers (be it as spoken or written words), then it becomes kind of moot itself.

Language evolves, and it's a dictionary's job to keep track of that evolution. About time it included some of the most common phrasings being used by millions upon millions of people on the net.

Exactly, [sub]though, I'll add they've being doing this for ages[/sub] it's not like we're French[footnote]As I understand it, the French government is/has tried to stop the evolution of the French language...evidently Britain having more rainy days than France is a myth[/footnote].

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

Colloquialisms, nothing more.

 

[Lacsapix]

In my language (Dutch) "lol" already means "fun" this came from before the internet culture.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

OMG LOL

([sub]bah, not quite as much fun now that's a potential sentence[/sub])

Never mind, off to find noobs to pwn.

 

[moretimethansense]

But they are NOT words...they are...well, i dont remember the actual word, but they are multiple words.

Initializations or acronyms.

An acronym is when the first letter of multiple words are made in to a word you can say.

An initalization is whan the first letter of multiple words are taken but they can't be pronounced as a word.

OT:
God no, it makes my skin crawl when people use these in real life, if it gets in to the dictionary I may just have to learn another language just so I can deliberately forget English.

 

[Queen Michael]

Well, if the dictionary doesn't contain the words commonly being used by people who use the language it covers (be it as spoken or written words), then it becomes kind of moot itself.

Language evolves, and it's a dictionary's job to keep track of that evolution. About time it included some of the most common phrasings being used by millions upon millions of people on the net.

Good sir, I applaud you. This is exactly what I think. I maintain that what a lot of people are saying about language is, to me, as if you'd say "The geography book says Mount Everest is 8840 meters high, but all measurements clearly show that it's 8848 meters. Clearly, there' something wrong with the mountain."

 

[StriderShinryu]

Should they be there? No, not a chance. First because they aren't actually words, and second because, even if they were words, I highly doubt they'll have any lasting sort of impact on language. In 10 years we'll still be using most of the words in the dictionary but no one will be saying OMG or LOL.

Except for 14year old girls in their diary-assigment. . . Lol will not actually be valid.

Nah, I'd actually almost say it's the opposite of that. The only people still using LOL or OMG as words in 10 years will be the ones who used them now but still think they're cool. 14 year old girls will other terms to use that probably don't even exist yet.

 

[Conza]

A third of us think it should be in there?

They are just commonly used acronyms, they aren't words, by admitting these, you open the door to any acronym, if it gets popular enough.

 

[Exterminas]

It keeps amazing me how little people understand about the way languages comes to be.

Here in Germany this is especially funny: German is an amalgation of ancient german languages, Latin, a dash of french and some english from around the world wars.

Now with the internet more and more english starts to leak into our language and people complain that it "taints" the german language. What's there to taint?

Your given example is even better, because these words aren't even from other languages, they are just shorter forms of well known phrases that become own words.

Like CIA. FBI. "The president". "The congress"