‘Tweet’ to feature in Aussie dictionary

The social networking term 'tweet' will be included in Australia's printed Macquarie Dictionary later this year.

The Oxford English Dictionary has now included the social networking term tweet', two years after it recognised popular texting terms OMG (oh my god) and LOL (laugh out loud).

In a further sign technology is changing the way we speak, tweet' will also debut in Australia's printed Macquarie Dictionary later this year.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) chief editor John Simpson confirmed tweet' had been formally recognised in his hallowed tome's June update - more than seven years after Twitter was invented.

'This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for 10 years before consideration for inclusion. But it seems to be catching on.'

The OED defined tweet' as simply: 'To make a posting on the social networking service Twitter. Also: to use Twitter regularly or habitually'.

Tweet' will appear in the next print edition of the Macquarie Dictionary in October, Editor Susan Butler told AAP.

Macquarie editors recognised the word in 2009 and included it in online editions from 2010.

Earlier this year, the Macquarie Dictionary included phantom vibration syndrome' in its online edition - describing anxiety and an obsessive conviction that one's mobile phone has vibrated in response to an incoming call.

Other words or phrases which made it into the new OED included: wingsuit' (a full-body garment having wings), sega' (a dance form of the Mascarene Islands) and metabolic syndrome' (a cluster of biochemical and physiological abnormalities).

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'Tweet' to feature in Aussie dictionary

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