These are words??

What has happened to the English language.

I’ve always been a bit of a word and grammar geek, even to the point that I signed up for the dictionary.com “Word of the Day” feature.

I read a fair amount, in a number of different genres, I’ve flipped through vocabulary books and thesauruses and even write in my spare time – some for local magazines and some just side projects.

And I cringe every time I see stories like this.

Every year, the Oxford English Dictionary adds new words that have entered pop culture and are supposed to pass as legitimate English phrases.

Over 2,000 new words were added this year, and there are a few that are prime examples of how the human race is getting DUMBER and DUMBER.

Here are a couple of the words, and their definitions, that have been added to the Dictionary.

--VUVUZELA. "Long horn blown by fans at soccer matches."

--BROMANCE. "A close but non-sexual relationship between two men."

--CHILLAX. "Calm down and relax."

--BUZZKILL. "A person or thing that has a depressing or dispiriting effect."

--CHILL PILL. "A notional pill taken to make someone calm down." (???)

--CHEESEBALL. "Lacking taste, style or originality."

--WARDROBE MALFUNCTION. "An instance of a person accidentally exposing an intimate part of their body as a result of an article of clothing slipping out of position."

--HATER. "Negative person."

--DEFRIEND. "Another term for unfriend (remove someone from a list of friends or contacts on a social networking site)."