Psy’s catchy song “Gangnam Style” has been named among Collins Dictionary’s words of 2012.
According to the Collins Dictionary homepage, “Gangnam Style” was picked up as candidate for new words, along with “Eurogeddon”, which refers to the financial crisis of the Euro zone, and “fiscal cliff”, which is a hot issue in American politics and refers to a sharp decrease in government spending and an increase in taxes that could throw the economy back into recession. The new words will be added to the online dictionary in its next site update.
The 12 new words came from among almost 7,400 new word submissions from the general public, after Collins opened its online dictionary up to suggestions in recognition of “how language is constantly evolving through pop culture, events and trends”.
Collins selected one popular word to represent each month from the whole range of those submitted. “Gangnam Style” was picked up in November.
Collins stated that PSY’s “Gangnam Style” became the most viewed video on YouTube in November with over a billion views. It has since spawned many spoofs in countries across the globe.
Collins classified the 12 new words into two groups. The first is “candidates”, which will be added to the online dictionary in the next site update, and the second group of words are ‘under review’, meaning that evidence of use is continuing to grow and be collected, while others still have been ‘rejected’ based on the dictionary’s criteria for inclusion. “Gangnam Style” is a candidate.
Source: KBS