IF you think the word toxic relates to hazardous chemicals, then a new dictionary edition will change that.
In the wake of the phone hacking scandal, when the now defunct News of the World was referred to as a “toxic” brand – the 12th edition of The Chambers Dictionary claims toxic means a damaging financial asset.
The dictionary, which goes on sale today, also has a new definition for the word flipping which relates to politicians switching from one property to another to avoid capital gains tax.
Other new entries also include bromance – a close, but not romantic or sexual, relationship between two men, and skank – a promiscuous girl or woman.
Terms linked to internet culture such as defriend, which means to remove someone from a friends list on a social networking site, also feature.
The dictionary also includes abbreviations such as OMG (oh my god), BFF (best friend forever) and TMI (too much information).
A spokesman for Chambers said that, as well as adding new words, they have also refused to remove more antiquated phrases.
These include wittle, a man who knows his wife is unfaithful and accepts it, and wagger pagger, a waste paper basket.
The spokesman said: “Popular English dictionaries have a critical responsibility to showcase our historic language, not just the words of the moment.”
The new dictionary, which costs between £40 and £50, also highlights what it believes are cringeworthy and clichéd words and phrases such as tsar, joined-up, and years young.
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