East Perth residents can expect to see ‘Tweet’ make its debut in Australia’s premier Macquarie Dictionary by the end of this year. The move is contrary to OED rules, according to John Simpson, chief editor. He said:
“A new word needs to be current for 10 years before consideration for inclusion, but it seems to be catching on.”
For such a popular activity, ‘tweet’ is described relatively tamely by the OED as:
“To make a posting on the social networking site, Twitter. Also: to use Twitter regularly or habitually.”
Networking and communication systems are creating a wealth of new terminology. The Macquarie Dictionary earlier this year added ‘phantom vibration syndrome’, which describes an obsessive conviction that a mobile phone has vibrated, signalling an incoming call.
Other recent additions to the OED include ‘wingsuit’ (a winged body garment), ‘metabolic syndrome’ (a group of physiological and biochemical abnormalities), and ‘to have a cow’, a phrase made famous by cartoon character Bart Simpson.
Twitter has grown enormously since its inception in 2006. By 2012, there were 500 million users worldwide, with around 340 million tweets being sent every day. It has become one of the ten most visited sites on the internet, with printing companies increasingly including Twitter addresses on business card printing assignments.