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Adorkable makes it into Collins English Dictionary

  • Published
Actor Jim ParsonsImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The Big Bang Theory actor Jim Parsons has been called Adorkable

Adorkable has made it into the Collins English Dictionary after a public vote.

It used data from Twitter to identify new words and asked users to choose which one should be included in the next edition.

Other contenders included felfie, duckface, fatberg and nomakeupselfie.

Collins English Dictionary says adorkable is slang for "socially inept or unfashionable in a charming or endearing way" and is a blend of adorable and dork.

The word was voted for by 30% of the people who took part in the poll.

Felfie (a farmer selfie) was second, fatberg (a large mass of solid waste, grease, etc, clogging a sewage system) was third with nomakeupselfie (a selfie of a woman without her make-up, posted online to raise awareness for a charity) and gaybourhood (a gay-friendly neighbourhood) fourth and fifth.

Lucy Mangan, who blogs on collinsdictionary.com and is a contributor to Collins English Dictionary, said: "The people - or at least the tweeple - have spoken. Adorkable is the word they can't be without.

"Into the dictionary it goes, allowing Collins to close the gap between the recording of a living language and its movements in the real world more than ever before - the goal of every compiler since Dr Johnson first scrawled 'aardvark - giant, armoured woodlouse' on his big papery thing tied up with string and kicked off the whole fascinating, frustrating, elusive, addictive process.

"At last the internet starts giving something back to word nerds."

Collins' data reveals that adorkable was first used on Twitter in March 2007, peaked in January 2012 and has now settled into a steady and rising pattern of use.

The 12th edition of the dictionary is published in October and will be the first to include a word sourced using Twitter among more than 50,000 new words added this year.

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