Is urban the new language

[cacian]

what is the Urban Dictionary?
and is it set to replace the Oxford one?

[Mohammad Ahmad]

what is the Urban Dictionary?
and is it set to replace the Oxford one?
Hi cacian
I think you don't miss this widespread dictionary, its groups widely are working at Facebook, you can meet them at Facebook, and from Facebook they send their posts to the homepage.
This is the homepage link
For the meaning of urban:
adj. pertaining to or characteristic of a city; living in a city; municipal
I thought the given name is derived from this thought i.e.the modern era and more of its expressions are slang language. I have one copy of this dictionary sent to me three years before but it is uncompleted because everyday there is a new word, I myself suggested some of expressions to be discussed. I think it is possible to derive a new word as we derive the noun from the verb or the adjective from the noun.
I myself as I am translator have derived one English word while I was still student in the Translation Dept. because as still I remember I didn't find suitable English expression to my Arabic word in that time

http://www.urbandictionary.com/

[JBI]

It's a nonsense concept. Local vernaculars exist everywhere. What we in English call an Urban vernacular is another polite form of saying "inner city" vocabulary, which relies heavily on slang, to the point of needing a sort of footnotage - for instance, listening to a rap song from the 90s demonstrates an Urban vernacular of the 90s.

That said, we also use the term to mark the semi-educated classes of English, which comes up with specific words, like Lesbionic, or the like.

Still, this is just a numbers game. Each local seems to have specific vernacular usage. It's just that the size of the urban community is significantly larger to the town, or the small city, so these vernaculars enter the arts and have an impact.

[Mohammad Ahmad]

Oxford dictionary is of course the indisputable forever dictionary in the world.
Yet we consider it the main reference, but many new expressions it doesn't include, it depends only on the root of the words, it hasn't wide derivations, and as always we need the equivalent expressions in translation we resort either to ourselves or to dictionaries like the Urban or to gather words from here and there in order to our translating text becomes successful.
Look to the following words and expressions I swear you can't find them in most of dictionaries I myself have gathered them or arranged them or derived them to be equivalent expressions.
And these are just dozen of words of thousand thousand words either I have learned from others or myself have derived, but the most of it is formulated by myself.

Scattered wreckage
Charred corpses
Occupants
Exploded on impact of something
In severe financial difficulties
To tighten up
Sweet revenge
Arachnids
In quick succession
Pass out
Would make most people's skin crawl
Dethroned
Upped the ante
Rejoices in the grand title
One falling swoop
Social exclusion
The eye of the storm
Torrential
To wreak serious damage
Out of harm's way
Drop in sales
High profile stunts
Access to their children
Sidekick
Lengthy negotiations
National mourning
His heart has been ripped
Building bombed-out shell
Unaccounted for
They mounted vigorous campaign
Politically motivated
Heightened concern
A decent chap
He did me credit
Relaxation after strenuous effort
Crocodile tears
Something new turned up
Let us suppose for the sake of argument
From the quiver of arrows
Millstone grinding away, yet I see no grains (proverb)
The rising generation
Those with great power and influence
Believe in a stone and you will be healed (proverb)
He puts the plan forward for discussion
A glimmer of hope
To give an example, but not to exclude other possibilities
The settled and the nomadic Bedu (Bedouin)
He arrived, giving praise and thanks
God's Creation is wonderfully diverse
The twin Rivers Tigris & Euphrates
The lesser of the two evils
The straight path
The dogs bark and the caravan proceeds (proverb)

The word ( footnotage) I didn't find in my dictionaries even if I have dozen of dictionaries such as Oxford dictionary and Miriam Webster dictionary, and even if I searched the online (*I think it is misspelling of footnote)

[JBI]

People need to learn that Webster's cannot be trusted as any authority on anything modern, as it's public domain, and therefore anybody can publish a Webster's dictionary.

[mal4mac]

Look to the following words and expressions I swear you can't find them in most of dictionaries...


Why should these expressions be in a dictionary? "Scattered" and "wreckage" are in the dictionary, but why should "scattered wreckage". All sorts of things can be scattered - "scattered toys", "scattered leaves",... . It would be ridiculous to have them all in a dictionary. Also, why should obvious plurals be in a dictionary? You don't need "arachnids" in the dictionary if "arachnid" is there (as it is in my concise OED). All you need is the singular, and a statement of the rule for making plurals. Of course, for deviant plurals, like sheep, you need to say something like "pl. the same", as in my COED.

Also, "pass out" & "crocodile tears" are in my COED; you must be using really small dictionaries if they don't have such phrases. What Oxford dictionary do you have? Get yourself a COED, it's a wonderful dictionary.

[chirpy]

Cacian, I am incredibly certain no one has to worry about their oxford dictionary becoming obsolete. I do think it needs to change faster, and I would love it if all I had to do when I missed a week would be to look up all the new references and words, but essentially a lot of slang is used talking with certain groups and outside those groups – useless. A lot of great words and sayings are born every day but most won't last the month. urban dictionary is "helpful" but only until you have to actually use it.

[PeterL]

what is the Urban Dictionary?
and is it set to replace the Oxford one?

No, urban expressions are just some more colloquialisms or slang. Some may truly enter the English language, but most will be forgotten in a few years.

[Mohammad Ahmad]

People need to learn that Webster's cannot be trusted as any authority on anything modern, as it's public domain, and therefore anybody can publish a Webster's dictionary.
Yes, that's right, but people who share their knowledge into this field are not illiterate people, often they are educated people.
Moreover, I accept with you to say everyone can publish a Webster's dictionary, but often learned people can distinguish between which one is right and which one is wrong.
Of course they always need to compare and to select the suitable and the authentic one, because for those are not native speakers the matter is totally different and hard, then they need to further expandable knowledge to find the equivalence of literary words those dealt with culture especially to whom often works in translation field.
Many dependable dictionaries even Oxford sometimes don't give you the meaning truthfully and sometimes you get failure if you depend on dictionary, then you need to understand the text deliberately focusing on sharply then to choose from the context what the writer actually has meant, therefore, always we say the "context is the solution".
I wish you understood me and accepted with me in what I declared.
The translation indeed is hard work and many people have high certificate but they cannot translate one line, if their knowledge don't betray them, their ability of understanding will betray them.
In addition, English language is not pure enough from another languages' interfering , it is full of with French, German , Italian, Spanish words or expressions.

[cacian]

Cacian, I am incredibly certain no one has to worry about their oxford dictionary becoming obsolete. I do think it needs to change faster, and I would love it if all I had to do when I missed a week would be to look up all the new references and words, but essentially a lot of slang is used talking with certain groups and outside those groups – useless. A lot of great words and sayings are born every day but most won't last the month. urban dictionary is "helpful" but only until you have to actually use it.

well I begin to notice it more and more with google everytime I look up a word. it is not about it being around it is about the fact that it is there. someone can sit there , as though it were their job to do so, and fill it up to increase its popularity. a word is made up everyday to rival an English word for example.
who says words cannot be stolen or taken off and replaced with another less English of roots?

[Mohammad Ahmad]

Why should these expressions be in a dictionary? "Scattered" and "wreckage" are in the dictionary, but why should "scattered wreckage". All sorts of things can be scattered - "scattered toys", "scattered leaves",... . It would be ridiculous to have them all in a dictionary. Also, why should obvious plurals be in a dictionary? You don't need "arachnids" in the dictionary if "arachnid" is there (as it is in my concise OED). All you need is the singular, and a statement of the rule for making plurals. Of course, for deviant plurals, like sheep, you need to say something like "pl. the same", as in my COED.

Also, "pass out" & "crocodile tears" are in my COED; you must be using really small dictionaries if they don't have such phrases. What Oxford dictionary do you have? Get yourself a COED, it's a wonderful dictionary.

Indeed they are English words and they aren't German.
I meant some of the collocations and yet I have more.
Sometimes I confront difficulties not only to find out the real meaning for such word or expression, for instance; ( one = واحد in Arabic) but it is hardly sometimes to find the equivalent meaning so in this case usually the translator must depend on himself especially in what we call the expressive meaning of literature text, but for scientific text there is a bit of difficulties.
I meant how to use certain collocational words to be suitable for the English language,for instance there is no expression like:
"She is white as snow" in Arabic and often they would say:
She is white as sun. She is beautiful like the moon.
Yet it is early to define more!
Do you ever notice this word? I don't believe this is correctly an English word, the longest word in English language!
"floccinaucinihilipilification"
Look to this expression just yesterday I picked from such reading text "Be up with the lark". What does it mean? It means; get up early. It is acquainted by Arabic person but not into the same way.
Arab would say for example in their language: Get up\ be up with the rooster
lastly I want to shorten my answer in two lines:
The matter with translator is too much hard, the matter is not only consisting beyond understanding or misunderstanding, the matter is to find the equivalence and I repeat it over and over the " equivalence" because indeed you cannot find always the exactly word you search for, therefore we must search for additional ways, one of them sometimes is to derive the meaning from the context without checking the dictionary and I confirm again, sometimes the dictionary misleads us.
pass out \ pass out of mind= be forgotten \ faint\ lose consciousness but what is about the following phrase?
Kick the bucket. Can I say; kick the buckets or Kick the bucket out?

[Scheherazade]

a word is made up everyday to rival an English word for example.
Give us couple of examples, please.

[cacian]

No, urban expressions are just some more colloquialisms or slang. Some may truly enter the English language, but most will be forgotten in a few years.

but they are documented under urban dictionary and promoted by google.what is written is normally kept.

[Lokasenna]

Give us couple of examples, please.

Look in her poetry. You'll find thousands.

The OED is a benchmark, but one that is reviewed on an annual basis, with words being added and removed every year. English is a dynamic language, and there will always be plenty of neologisms that begin in an 'urban' environment, if you like to call it that. Some will, in time, become popular and recognized enough to make it in to the OED - many will be forgotten as quickly as they appeared.

[Mohammad Ahmad]

a word is made up everyday to rival an English word for example.

I think for this concern someone has said the truth, if we look for the given example " at a loss'" the oxford dictionary gives it the meaning " to sell something in the market under the usual price,i.e. selling at a loss( below cost\\ 2- perplexed\ puzzled.
Look to the following given meaning by Urban online dictionary:
At a loss:
A man with a handlebar moustache rides by you on a pink pony with a purple tail while carrying a box of dynamite and a sparkler. You turn to your friend and say, "Did you see that?" and she says, "Yes, I'm at a loss." What does it mean in this context? does it mean, she is afraid! I think it means she is in critical situation or she is in astonishment!
Can the word "perplexed" replace instead of at a loss in the given context?
perplexed = confused\ puzzled
Subtle meaning perhaps makes confusion

[PeterL]

but they are documented under urban dictionary and promoted by google.what is written is normally kept.

Words are coined all the time, and two and three words expressions also, but most of those have a life of a few weeks. There are words that were used in Middle English that have also been lost, and how many of the cute expressions that Shakespeare gave to his characters are still current? Words come and go as often as the Sun.