The word “kewl”, a variant of the word “cool”, has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary and Collins English Dictionary.
By definition, it represents “an affected or exaggerated pronunciation of cool”.
The word first appeared as early as 1990, when used to describe music group Janes Addiction: “Janes Addiction is some kewl stuff”.
However, “kewl” is still regarded as slang, which means it still remains unacceptable in formal writing.
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Sep 28, 2011
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Canada
Local time: 09:18
Spanish to English
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Dewd, that's gnarly
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:18
French to English
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By their own admission it's been in use for at least 21 years, so, I don't know if they were expecting a big round of applause or something...
Spain
Local time: 18:18
Spanish to English
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Pathetic. Like dancing dads trying to be down with the kids. We already have "cool", so surely defining this and its ilk would be better left up to online sites like UrbanDictionary.com, allowing the Oxford to dedicate its time, money and efforts to more august matters.
Spain
Local time: 18:18
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
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Eye rilly thinck its gr8 th@t n0bodi noze h0w 2 speel ennymore. [sic]
Spain
Local time: 18:18
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
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I never understood why people would like to be called Antwoine or Dezarai instead of Antoine or Desiree.
Will the OED also include "bloody ell" for "bloody hell"? That (without the 'h') is what came to my mind when I read the news.
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:18
French to English
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Will the OED also include "bloody ell" for "bloody hell"? That (without the 'h') is what came to my mind when I read the news.
This one's a bit more arguable. If you see "bloody 'ell" as simply an imitation of an accent with essentially no other special attributes governing its usage, then the OED could decide it's not going to include idiosyncratic spelling variants just on practical grounds.
If there's evidence of "bloody ell", as opposed to "bloody hell", being attributed to a particular register, sociolinguistic group etc, then that might be grounds to include it: in that case, you've actually got 'something interesting to document' as it were.
Spain
Local time: 18:18
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
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If there's evidence of "bloody ell", as opposed to "bloody hell", being attributed to a particular register, sociolinguistic group etc, then that might be grounds to include it: in that case, you've actually got 'something interesting to document' as it were.
I sincerely think it would then be worth adding. Being weak and a sinner, I can accept the idea of going to hell, but going to 'ell really gives me the creeps!
Local time: 18:18
English to Hungarian
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Pathetic. Like dancing dads trying to be down with the kids.
Exactly. I don't know why anyone thought it was a good idea to put rarely used slang spelling variants of a word in the dictionary. If they start doing this, they might as well add 'lawl', 'd00d' and a couple hundred more.
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:18
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
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In my opinion, the ultimate English dictionary would contain: every single word they can get their hands on.
We might balk at words such as 'kewl', 'badware', 'facepalm', 'bridezilla', and 'glamping' being added, but wait until you are looking for some stupid marketing term, and you find that the Oxford team has in fact already defi... See more
In my opinion, the ultimate English dictionary would contain: every single word they can get their hands on.
We might balk at words such as 'kewl', 'badware', 'facepalm', 'bridezilla', and 'glamping' being added, but wait until you are looking for some stupid marketing term, and you find that the Oxford team has in fact already defined it, clearly and succinctly, and made it easily accessible straight from inside a Google Chrome tab...
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United Kingdom
Local time: 17:18
Member (2010)
English to Japanese
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I don't mean criticise anyone here. You are probably only engaging in a light-hearted weekend banter. But I get irritated every time someone has a go at the OED for including a slang word. They just can't win: if they decide to be conservative in their selection, they get the usual 'ivory-tower' type labels thrown at them. If they include a couple of slang words, they suddenly become the middle-aged bespectacled men and women trying to be younger than they are.
Anyway, my point was that the OED uses a state-of-the-art computer system to process millions of potential candidate words. If kewl came up for selection, that means it's been statistically shown to be used widely and frequently. ▲ Collapse
Local time: 18:18
English to Hungarian
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the OED uses a state-of-the-art computer system to process millions of potential candidate words. If kewl came up for selection, that means it's been statistically shown to be used widely and frequently.
But it doesn't mean that it's anything more than a spelling variant of 'cool' with no distinct meaning of its own.
Local time: 18:18
Swedish to English
Must be from the Swedish kul, meaning funny, amusing. (Long u).
As in: ha kul = have fun. Det var kul att träffas = it was nice meeting you.
There lots more Swedish words available. Some have already been pinched, eg, ombudsman, primus, abba.
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:18
Member (2010)
English to Japanese
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the OED uses a state-of-the-art computer system to process millions of potential candidate words. If kewl came up for selection, that means it's been statistically shown to be used widely and frequently.
But it doesn't mean that it's anything more than a spelling variant of 'cool' with no distinct meaning of its own.
I see what you mean but I wasn't really referring to the meaning of the word. I merely wanted to point out that the editors don't just pick up some random slang words they fancied. You wrote:
I wanted to say that the word, on the basis of the analysis of the OED database, isn't rare or sporadically used in spite of your impression. As far as the issue of 'spelling variant' goes, I'm inclined to agree with you in this case but the OED site states:
kewl adj. Representing an affected or exaggerated pronunciation of cool adj., esp. in the language of electronic communications [1990].
So they must have decided that its usage is distinct enough to warrant a separate lemma of its own. Historically there are so many words which start off as little more than spelling variants but which nevertheless go on to develop new meanings of their own. As I said, I don't think 'kewl' is a particularly strong case but then again, I respect the editors; I certainly don't have a problem with it.
United States
Local time: 09:18
English to German
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that it's anything more than a spelling variant of 'cool' with no distinct meaning of its own.
They might as well add "pleeze", a spelling variant wildly popular among teenagers. It still means "please" and doesn't constitute a "new word".
Italy
Local time: 18:18
Italian to English
In the OED it is listed (in the outline version of the entry) as "representing an affected or exaggerated pronunciation" of cool, which is true, and it is accompanied with sample sentences demonstrating usage. Moreover, it is presented as = to the eighth sense of the adj. cool. The full entry presumably provides more information.
In the OED it is listed (in the outline version of the entry) as "representing an affected or exaggerated pronunciation" of cool, which is true, and it is accompanied with sample sentences demonstrating usage. Moreover, it is presented as = to the eighth sense of the adj. cool. The full entry presumably provides more information.
In the Oxford Dictionary of English it's simply listed as a spelling variant of the third sense of the adjective "cool". Here it's accompanied by a brief explaination of the the origin of the variant and a sampling of 20 instances in which it has been used, to provide some usage context.
Not sure where the idea popped up that it is listed as a new word, but of course it is not, 'cuz it's not (a new word).
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