She: You know that texting dictionary we got my dad for Christmas?
Z: It was perfect. Now instead of it only taking 15 minutes for him to painstakingly peck out a text, it takes him a full half-hour to look up the abbreviations for what he wants to text.
She: Apparently it’s going to be replacing Webster’s soon.
Z: We are so ahead of the curve.
She: The OED now says that OMG, FYI, LOL and OK are actual words.
Z: It sounds to me like the OED has OCD or ADD.
She: For the March edition of the OED Online (that’s the Oxford English Dictionary for those of you who still have bookshelves) they added a number of “initialisms
Z: I suppose if any dictionary was going to recognize initialisms, it should be the OED, what with it being one of the granddaddies of initials itself.
She: It’s sick and wrong. The abbreviations are winning.
Z: My initials are ZAK. Am I in there?
She: Not yet. For OED purposes, initialisms are abbreviations consisting of the initial letters of a name or expression.
Z: Which is exactly what ZAK is. Why am I not in there?
She: I’m sure it was an oversight. But why is the OED making up a new word like initialism? We used to call them acronyms, which I guess makes us anachronisms now.
Z: LOL.
She: That’s in there as a real word. So is OMG.
Z: Oh. My. God! Really?
She: Yes, and not just IMHO.
Z: I’m a ho?
She: Not really, in my humble opinion.
Z: You say the sweetest things.
She: BFF’s in there, too, my friend, along with TMI and the heart symbol.
Z: The heart symbol? Are there no more words in the dictionary?
She: According to the OED blog, the heart symbol “may be the first English usage to develop via the medium of T-shirts and bumper-stickers.”
Z: That’s awesome. I ♥ that. I wonder if it’s too late to get “I ♣ Seals” in there?
She: They are always adding new words and phrases. Muffin top, bromance, tweetup, couch surfing and smack talk all made the list.
Z: Koss tried to smack talk me by calling me a mutton top.
She: He’s waaay ahead of the curve.
Z: ZAK will definitely be in by 2012. I just need to make up some T-shirts and bumper stickers and I’ll be golden.
She: Good plan. BTW, another addition to the OED this year is ego-surfing.
Z: That sounds like a lot more fun than Googling yourself, which just sounds kind of nasty.
She: I did feel a little better when I read about the history of some of these new words.
Z: In a text message?
She: A tweet. It linked to a blog.
Z: Controlled by the Borg?
She: According to Graeme Diamond, the OED’s principal editor for new words …
Z: … I thought that was Sarah Palin’s new job.
She: One can only hope.
Z: I’ll bet Diamond’s middle name is Oliver. His initials would explain why he thinks he can make up new words.
She: Anyhow, Diamond said the first confirmed use of ‘‘OMG’’ was in a 1917 letter. So sometimes things people think are new words actually have a longer history.
Z: Like ZAK. That goes back to 1965.
She: Did you know that LOL didn’t always stand for laughing out loud? It used to mean little old lady.
Z: I wouldn’t touch that one with a 10-foot initialism.
She: Yes, dear.
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— Tell She and Z what you think of the OED by emailing leslie@lesliedinaberg.com.