Over the year the dictionary has recognized hundreds of new words along with a few familiar words that are used in a different form such as [...]]]> As the first decade of the 21^st century closes word enthusiasts are pleased to welcome a few new linguistic terms into the Oxford English Dictionary including jeggings, snollygosters, and tweetups.

Over the year the dictionary has recognized hundreds of new words along with a few familiar words that are used in a different form such as unfriend, simples, and zombie banking.

Lexicographic specialist, Susie Dent, from the television show Countdown who was responsible for scanning over around two billion words said that over the course of last year the most familiar new term was ‘credit crunch’ and that many more phrases obviously were spawned by the recession.

For example,’ zombie bankers’ was a term used after the City almost meltdown along with staycation which means taking a holiday in the UK to save money.

The internet also played a large role in influencing new words such as unfriend coming directly from Facebook when one chooses to drop a friend from their profile.  The New Oxford American Dictionary voted it the word of the year while in the UK it split the honour of top new word with defriend which is also used alternatively to mean the same thing.

As most would guess Tweetup emerged from Twitter and means organizing a group activity in which people would meet up.

Jeggings on the other hand emerged from a word mash up of jeans and leggings to describe the popular clothing style of wearing tight jeans that look like leggings.