MAMIL added to Oxford Dictionary

[PotomacCyclist]

http://www.bicycling.com/blogs/thehu...tionary-status

Not that this really matters much, whether or not some ivory tower Brits give their "permission" to use the word/acronym. At least people can now point others to the dictionary when someone is confused by the term. Plus you can use the term in a formal paper without getting your knuckles rapped by the Wordsmith Gatekeeper.

[mstone]

Plus you can use the term in a formal paper without getting your knuckles rapped by the Wordsmith Gatekeeper

...so long as said gatekeeper doesn't notice that it's annotated as "informal".

[Crickey7]

I wouldn't get too excited. "Muffin top" made the Oxford dictionary, too.

[PotomacCyclist]

You are now allowed to use MAMIL and muffin top in conversations with MLA members (Modern Language Association), so there's that.

[Orestes Munn]

I wouldn't get too excited. "Muffin top" made the Oxford dictionary, too.

The terms have intersecting extensions, one notes.

[Vicegrip]

The terms have intersecting extensions, one notes.

I have seen the two terms intersect not only in the extensions but in the body too.

[kwarkentien]

So how come there's no MAWIL? or MAWIS? I'm feeling discriminated against here.

[Orestes Munn]

So how come there's no MAWIL? or MAWIS? I'm feeling discriminated against here.

Some of us angels fear to tread there.

[cyclingfool]

Tribalization FTW.

I'm a TSMIASCS (Thirty Something Male in Athletic Shorts or Cargo Shorts). When will we get a dictionary entry? Probably not at least until I'm a FSMIASCS (Forty Something...)

[PotomacCyclist]

Every new word has to get a start somewhere. Start using the word. Then suggest that a "friend" add it to those online slang dictionaries to make it semi-official official. Then more people will use it. City Paper will start using it. Then mainstream sources will pick up on it, thinking that it's the hip new word. Then a friend of a friend of a friend of an editor who happens to know someone at Oxford (or at the American Heritage Dictionary or Merriam-Webster) will cudgel or threaten to cudgel one of said dictionary arbiters with a stale baguette if they don't include the word in the next edition of the dictionary. And that's how it's done. It's actually written that way in the manual, "How Words Get Into Dictionarys 'n Stuf."

P.S. Stale baguettes can be quite hard.