‘Brexit’ enters the dictionary

OXFORD Dictionaries have added ‘Brexit’ among other trendy words in the latest update to their online dictionary.

The word, which some readers have told us they do not like, is defined as ‘a term for the potential or hypothetical departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union’.

It comes alongside other topical additions such as ‘Grexit’, ‘swatting’ and ‘deradicalization’; topics that are trendy on the social media like ‘manspreading’ or 'microaggression'; gender neutral title 'Mx'; and even such slangy expressions as ‘butthurt’, ‘brain fart’, 'pwnage' and ‘beer o’clock’ (‘an appropriate time of day to start drinking beer’).

‘Brexit’ is a ‘portmanteau word’, which the French call a mot-valise, that is one consisting of two others squashed together. 'Portmanteau' originally referred to a carrying case with two compartments, large enough to put a coat in one of them (literally 'coat-carrier').

We look at this topic in the Language Notes column in September’s edition of the Connexion newspaper, which in French gives such terms such as adulescent (an adult who still believes they can act like a teenager) and pourriel for ‘spam’.

What do you think of ‘Brexit’? A handy short word for a hot topic, or do you find it irritating?

Let us know at news[at]connexionfrance.com or on our Facebook page .

September’s Connexion is on sale this weekend at newsagents, or you can download a copy now (€3.80) at Back Issues.

Oxford Dictionaries stress that OxfordDictionaries.com focuses on ‘current English’ and ‘modern meanings’ and is different from the traditional Oxford English Dictionary, which (a bit like the dictionary of the Académie Française) is a ‘historical dictionary’ and records ‘core words and meanings’ over more than 1,000 years.