'Whatevs', 'sumfin' and 'chillax' among new words added to Oxford English Dictionary

Thanks largely to social media (and ‘Love Island’), the language we use in every day life is constantly changing, prompting the bods at Oxford English Dictionary to have to continually assess the words worthy of entry.

To keep up with the keyboard and phone-friendly slang that now dominates our everyday lives (whether we like it or not) the Oxford English Dictionary has been updated to include words such as ‘sumfin’, ‘whatevs’, ‘chillax’ and ‘simples.’

The dictionary's quarterly update also has words from science fiction favourite ‘Star Wars’ ahead of the release of the new movie in December.

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‘Lightsaber’, ‘Jedi’, ‘padawan’, ‘The Force’ and 'Jedi mind trick' all take their place amongst the pages, complete with definitions.

In a food-based update ‘arancini’; Italian rice balls, has been added, alongside ‘poke’ reflecting the rise of Hawaiian cuisine, while two popular American salads, ‘cobb’ and ‘wedge’, have also been included in the update.

Alternative meanings have also been added to the words ‘hanging’ and ‘steaming’, both of which have acquired new booze-related definitions with the former referring to suffering from a hangover while the latter means being extremely inebriated.

Perhaps academics were giving a nod to President Trump with the addition of the term ‘Fake News’, which the dictionary defines as the "circulation of inaccurate and untrustworthy news stories specifically on social media”.

And the of-the-moment condition of ‘nomophobia’, which occurs when people have anxiety and fear about not having access to a mobile phone, is also a reflection of modern times.

Having regularly used the term to describe British politics this year, and possibly in recognition of the hit satire show ‘The Thick of It’, the word ‘omnishambles’ has also been added to the dictionary.

October’s update has also included a fair few blush-worthy terms NSFW. ‘Buck naked’, ‘c**ktease’ and ‘d***-sucker’ have all made it on the list, alongside the more kiddie-friendly ‘chirpse’, which is another term for flirting.

The letter 'O' has also been added and is defined as being "used to symbolise a hug especially at the end of a letter or greetings card".

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The new additions are among 203 new words which appear in the dictionary for the very first time.

You can read the full list of new words here.

Last month it was revealed that the definition of the word ‘they’ as a nonbinary pronoun has been incorporated into the dictionary.

Dictionary publishers, Merriam-Webster, made the announcement that they had incorporated the use of ‘they’ as a nonbinary pronoun to its list of definitions on their website and Twitter.

“They,” the dictionary now notes, can be “used to refer to a single person whose gender identity is nonbinary.”