Tweet, wingsuit, burqini - newest dictionary additions

'Tweet' will debut in Australia's printed Macquarie Dictionary later this year.Photo / Thinkstock

OMG, tweet is in the OED.

The Oxford English Dictionary has now included the social networking term 'tweet', two years after it recognised popular texting terms OMG (oh my god) and LOL (laugh out loud).

In a further sign technology is changing the way we speak, 'tweet' will also debut in Australia's printed Macquarie Dictionary later this year.

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) chief editor John Simpson confirmed 'tweet' had been formally recognised in his hallowed tome's June update - more than seven years after Twitter was invented.

"This breaks at least one OED rule, namely that a new word needs to be current for 10 years before consideration for inclusion. But it seems to be catching on."

The OED defined 'tweet' as simply: "To make a posting on the social networking service Twitter. Also: to use Twitter regularly or habitually".

'Tweet' will appear in the next print edition of the Macquarie Dictionary in October, Editor Susan Butler said.

Macquarie editors recognised the word in 2009 and included it in online editions from 2010.

Earlier this year, the Macquarie Dictionary included 'phantom vibration syndrome' in its online edition - describing anxiety and an obsessive conviction that one's mobile phone has vibrated in response to an incoming call.

Other words or phrases which made it into the new OED included: 'wingsuit' (a full-body garment having wings), 'sega' (a dance form of the Mascarene Islands) and 'metabolic syndrome' (a cluster of biochemical and physiological abnormalities).

The OED also recognised the slang phrase "to have a cow" - synonymous with the cartoon character Bart Simpson, but which in fact the OED says dates back to 1959.

Another slang phrase, "handyman special" made it too.

The OED said that term described "something (especially a house) which is in need of repair and therefore available at a discounted price".

New words in the Macquarie Dictionary

• shovelready - capable of being initiated immediately, as soon as funding is assured (2009)

• googleganger - person of same name whose online references are mixed with one's own (2010)

• burqini - swimsuit designed for Muslim women, comprising leggings and a tunic top with hood (2011)

• misogyny - definition broadened to include Julia Gillard's attack on Tony Abbott during a parliamentary debate (2012)

• phantom vibration syndrome - obsessional conviction that one's mobile phone has vibrated in response to an incoming call (2013).

- AAP