Dictionaries have to move with the times, adding new words and phrases as they become a part of common language, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the Oxford Junior Dictionary has jumped into the 21st century and included “blog” for the first time in its latest edition.
Plenty of other tech words have been added including broadband, MP3 player, voicemail, database, chatroom and cut and paste.
Ironically, a lot of children won’t need to look up the word “blog” in a printed dictionary because they’ll either already know what it is (and probably be running one) or else they’ll use the Internet (via their broadband connection, naturally) to view Wikipedia.
It’s bad news for Mother Nature, with a number of plant and animal species dropped from the dictionary, but I’m sure kids will know where to look if they get stuck.
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This was big news in the UK when the changes were announced at the start of December with many people outraged by the word removed. Presumably they believe that if the word doesn’t exist in the dictionary, the object doesn’t exist in the real world.
This could make it a crushing blow for beavers, cauliflower farmers and anyone with a diesel car.
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As a father, I don’t mind updating the dictionary if it can help my children to be more aware about new things. Besides, blogging is now a part of world.
However, as I checked the words that has been deleted, I think there were some that should still stay. It’s history and it should be always be there.
Just my 2 cents though.