Oxford puts 'old' words online

By Gabriel S. Oberfield Newsday

Saturday, April 30, 2005 11:53 PM EDT

The Oxford English Dictionary's online edition just added new definitions and updated others so that people can sound intelligent, or just snobby, whenever they want.
If you're looking to get under someone's skin, call that person a "blooter."

Apparently, it means that buddy of yours is noisy and blabbering.

Who knew, but calling someone a "bawheid" isn't very nice, either - unless that person actually has a large round face or really is stupid.

And unless you've played Dungeons and Dragons your whole life (you know who you are), you've never heard of "apotropaism."

It's "the use of magic or ritual to avert evil influences or bad luck." Oh, right.

But some of the supposedly new lingo has been around a long time.

What the dictionary considers a new-fangled term, "uploading," is not just for techies anymore.

And those hipsters at OED decided it's cool to know what a "Deadhead" is, even though Jerry Garcia died almost a decade ago.

Speaking of heads, it's OK now to sport a "'fro." But hasn't that been fine since the '60s?

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