LOL, OMG, Heart Symbol Added to Oxford English Dictionary

Posted on March 26, 2011

The latest update to the Oxford English Dectionary, published on March 24, includes LOL and OMG, two popular Internet and texting acronyms.

For the March 2011 release of OED Online, we have selected for publication a number of noteworthy initialisms-abbreviations consisting of the initial letters of a name or expression. Some of these-such as OMG [OMG int. (and n.) and adj.]: 'Oh my God' (or sometimes 'gosh', 'goodness', etc.) and LOL [LOL int. and n./2]: 'laughing out loud'-are strongly associated with the language of electronic communications (email, texting, social networks, blogs, and so on).

The entry for OMG can be found here and the entry for LOL can be found here. The decision to go down this path will likely mean the adoption of many more texting acronyms in the future.

Another interesting addition with the latest update is the heart symbol, such as the one used in the I [Heart] NY slogan. The Telegraph says the heart sign's addition is the first graphical symbol to signify a word ever added to the Oxford English Dictionary. Take a look:

---

---