Since 1928, the Oxford English Dictionary has been the go-to source for all confused about word spellings and meanings. Each year, a new set of words are “accepted” by oxford and added to their future additions of dictionary releases. Often, pop-culture references found important to a generation are added to the line-up. Words such as “d’oh” (a sound of frustration uttered by Homer Simpson) and “unfriend” (an ode to the social network craze) payed honor to current trends. (“Trend” was given a new meaning a few years ago to indicate internet phenomena.)
This year’s list of words include “Lol” (laughing out loud), “OMG” (oh my god!), <3 (heart, love), and “muffin top” (the squishy bits of pudge that roll over the tops of too-tight pants).
Also included is Hentai.
What IS hentai? (No, I really don’t think I need to ask that on anime diet. You’re all ahead of Oxford!)
hentai
Pronunciation: /hɛnˈtʌɪ/
noun
[mass noun]
a subgenre of the Japanese genres of manga and anime, characterized by overtly sexualized characters and sexually explicit images and plots.
Origin:
1990s: Japanese, literally ‘abnormal, perverted’
About time! Hentai is probably one of the most famous genres of anime outside of Japan, and perhaps within as well.
Young high schoolers around the western hemisphere are most likely jumping for joy at the news as they can now inform their parents, “Honestly, I’m only doing english homework!”
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lol. Hentai becomes an English vocab. Ecchi, H, now becomes official. I’m amazed how flexible English is, while French and Korean trying to purify theirs. Japanese got lots of English vocab, but lost the original meanings. Famicon, lolicon, ecorabu, rabucon, aircon, pasocon…etc
Truly an historic moment for neologisms.
It’ll be funny to see Southerners go “Yee-haw! Where’s mah hentai?” with their trademark accent.
We’re witnessing one of the greatest moments in otaku history.