"Woke" Added to Oxford English Dictionary
The Oxford-English Dictionary has made one of its four annual updates for 2017, and finally decided that it's time to get "woke."
One of the world's foremost authorities on the English language, the O.E.D. has added a new definition to the word "woke." Embraced by the Black Lives Matter movement, "woke" has taken on a sociopolitical definition in recent years. As such, the O.E.D. now defines the past participle form of "woke" as:
woke, adjective: Originally: well-informed, up-to-date. Now chiefly: alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice; frequently in stay woke (often used as an exhortation).
While "woke," and more specifically "stay woke" have grown in prominence over the last two years, "woke" has been used to define political awareness, specifically in terms of racial issues since the 1960s. The O.E.D. cites an article by African-American writer William Melvin Kelley entitled "If you’re woke, you dig it" from the May 20th, 1962 issue of The New York Times Magazine as the earliest example. The article and accompanying cartoon criticizes white beatniks for appropriating black culture.
In addition to "woke," the O.E.D. also added several more words and definitions. Last year, the dictionary named "post-truth" the word of the year, and this year, they've added it to their official pages with the definition "relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping political debate or public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief."
Other updates include, the South American weevil known as "Zyzzyva," which has supplanted "zythum" as the last word in the dictionary, and a new sense of "thing," which is now a thing, literally. According to the new definition, "thing" can be used to refer to “a genuine or established phenomenon or practice," typically in questions conveying surprise or incredulity, as in "is that even a thing?”
So, now when you jump on some teens back for how they use the words "woke," "thing," or "zyzzyva," have the decency to know that you're wrong.
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colombianguy
ooh, NOW STAY WOKE / NIGGAS CREEPIN’
Also I don’t give a shit about this, whatever.
AL2009man
you know, I'm pretty slept.
MLG_Waluigi
I am both okay and not okay with this.
PayPay from 5san
Just gonna leave this masterpiece here.
Avoid Thispage Please
Odie
Oxford is adding bullshit definitions that would make a Wikipedia admin jealous.
We might lose the original kilogram if the current plans to replace it fail, throwing all precision-based technology in collapse.
We're losing language and measures. What next?
LogicalPhallusy
The Oxford dictionary is descriptive. They’re just doing their job. Don’t blame a rightly respected institution because people make up stupid words.
Odie
Well, that makes more sense then. I didn't knew there was a distinction and thought dictionaries were prescriptive by definition. TIL.
Now time to look more into our own dictionaires to figure what kind of dictionary our Aurelio and Houaiss are, and… looks like Google is borked again, I try to find dictionaries by type, instead I get the dictionary definition of "type".
I can only guess the original Aurelio was prescriptive because Aurelio himself refused to have his name listed as a synonym for dictionary, even though his name became a metonymy for dictionary.
nocunoct
English doesn't have any authority that rules that kind of matter, unlike say French or Spanish. It's a common mistake to think that certain dictionaries have authority over how the English language should be spoken.
Areskrieger
Well informed……XD
As for the second one that depends on how you define justice, justice can mean many things to many people thus it isn't wrong but at the same time I would never call social justice a legit form
Xyz_39808
RTheSecond
Eron's right
alenius
People seem to think that the dictionary is what decides whether or not something counts as a word. No, the dictionary only documents words that are already in use.
Orange Circle
Meanwhile, the wiktionary entry on woke helpfully tells you that it's an anagram for Ewok.
...
We need to stay angry, and stay Ewok.