Fast Times for Slang, Thanks to Internet

Friday, 27 May 2011 | by Pat's Picks

Slang moves fast these days. Thanks to the Internet, even one of the world’s top authorities on slang can’t keep up says the Wall Street Journal. Tom Dalzell is in the process of updating the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. And he was thrilled when he stumbled across the word “rickrolling.” He was less thrilled when he learned his discovery was four years late. (Rickrolling: An Internet prank that involves sending someone a link to the music video for Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”)

What makes Dalzell’s job so difficult these days is not only the pace at which words are coined but also a crop of neologists, who make up words and post them online. Says Dalzell of the make-your-own trend: “It’s like naming a star after yourself.”

Urban Dictionary Official Website

Check out this Tulsa news anchor getting rickrolled on April Fools Day, back in 2008: