The Concise, which was last updated in 1995, for the first time takes more than 20 percent of its 120,000 words -- 7,000 of them new -- from sources outside the U.K. Now you'll find such Americanisms as "studmuffin" (as in "I used to think Leo DiCaprio was a hunk, but now I realize the biggest studmuffin is Ricky Martin") and "bitching" (as in "That new Chili Peppers album sucks! Those guys used to be so bitching!")

Salon Books has discovered more delightful slang in the new edition. For instance, an outie may be a protruding belly button to an American, but to a South African it's a homeless person. If a Scot says, "Aye, that film 'Breaking the Waves' made me want to boke," he's intimating that the jittery Lars von Trier flick nearly drove him to throw up.

Created in 1911 by Henry Fowler, the author of the classic "Modern English Usage," the Concise Oxford English Dictionary is now in its 10th edition.
salon.com | June 11, 1999

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