Poll: LOL and OMG are now words?

[gbemery]

Well then a lot of "words" need to come out of the dictionary such as "fubar" (fucked up beyond all recognition) and "snafu" (situation normal all fucked up)

 

[Sonicron]

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"

Amen, mein Landsmann.
Right now I'm surrounded by more-or-less open minds at university, but God help me once I start working at school and dare to teach kids anything language-related that's outside the severely calcified guidelines - I'll have outraged parents yelling at me left and right.

 

[Nouw]

Slang and Acronyms are allowed in the dictionary so LOL and OMG shouldn't be a problem.

 

[JoJo]

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

I'm pretty sure I can say "lol" whilst smiling, can't anyone else?

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

This has set a precedent. Prepare to watch civilization crumble.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Hey, it's in common use, so it's a word. Everybody calm the fuck down. It's not as if a new word will destroy humanity, Shakespeare made up 30,000. So stop whining.

 

[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

I'm pretty sure I can say "lol" whilst smiling, can't anyone else?

Well, fair enough but to me it seems to awkward to be viable. And just think, someone makes you laugh in person, then you laugh, you wouldn't just smile and say lol, or, most people wouldn't.

 

[BonsaiK]

What are your opinions on this?

Congratulations, you've just discovered that language evolves over time.

Take a read through any book written in English that's over a thousand years old, and that hasn't been translated into modern English (i.e the Bible doesn't count). Good luck understanding anything in it.

 

[Macrobstar]

well I sometimes say lol in real life, I don't pronounce it L O L, I just say lol

 

[Faeriian]

...those arent acronyms LOL and OMG is initialism or abbreviation, acronyms must form words from each first letter of other words. grammar nazi, away!

 

[Calo Nord]

People actually voted for "Yes" ?

Please excuse me while I go hang myself.

 

[EllEzDee]

The only people who say "LOL" and "OMG" on the intronet are the ones who need to be rounded up and beaten.
The only "people" who say "LOL" and "OMG" in real life are the ones who need to be rounded up and shot.

 

[mrF00bar]

We might as well just take the urban dictionary and add all of them now.

 

[Jonluw]

It's right to put the words in the dictionary if they are being used extensively by the speakers of the language. I think it's just wrong that these abbrevations have become so commonplace though.
Few things annoy me as much as people saying "lol" in real life. Only the people who actually draw <3-hearts in real life are worse.

 

[El Poncho]

I like how the BBC basically called people noobs:3

edit: I wonder how many people read the article to see the explanation of why they are in the dictionary.

 

[Raven's Nest]

I don't use omg much but I do use lol.

I use lol in text to indicate tone or humour and I'll say it in real life as a heavily forced sarcastic response...

Who figured the word would have so many common uses. It definitely deserves to be I'n the dictionary having been around for over a decade and seeing it's use spread to all age generations and publications...

 

[The Weaver]

Language evolves, verbs become nouns and slang becomes common speech, but having an acronym become a word doesn?t seem quite right?.

Wonder if in a few years we will be talking like Mortuus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEWgs6YQR9A


God help us all!

 

[Solstar100]

sadly i do actually know people who use 'LOL' and 'Oh Em Gee' in actualy conversations, and they "used" to be my friends, after threatening one with wraping an exhaust around >HIS< head if he ever uttered that mindless $hite around me again, he understandably doesn't speak to me much anymore,
but as a rule the only people who i have heard say these things are the 'fashion' culture people who spout (for the brits anyway) Gavin & Stacy buzzwords constantly and who buy the latest top 3 albums every week to stay 'cool'
sufficed to say my sister is one of these vacuous wastes of flesh so i know what i'm talking about, oh and just to clarify i'm 26 and currently doing an engineering degree so i'm not just some teeny-angst ranting goite, i've been around, i've watched this trend rise in the generations under me, and daily i fear for where this species is heading

 

[Reallink]

They are frequently used acronyms which not only reflect our world but also have to some degree shaped it. They arguably also deserve a place in an encyclopedia somewhere along the track.

 

[Sonicron]

...those arent acronyms LOL and OMG is initialism or abbreviation, acronyms must form words from each first letter of other words. grammar nazi, away!

Sorry to say, you're a bit mixed up. They're both abbreviations, and whereas OMG is indeed an initialism, LOL is an acronym, or at least it has the properties of one. Why? Because LOL can be pronounced as a single word in accordance with the English language's phonetic rules. I realize that you can pronounce it "ell oh ell", but you can just pronounce it "loll" as well.