If you think "wiki" doesn't
sound like English, you are right. But it's English now. This word born on
the Pacific Island of Hawaii finally got an entry into the latest edition
of the online Oxford English Dictionary along with 287 other new words.
It has earned it.
"Words are included in the dictionary on the basis of the documentary
evidence that we have collected about them. A while ago this evidence
suggested that wiki was starting to make a name for itself," OED chief
editor John Simpson said in a statement.
"We tracked it for several years, researched its origins and finally
decided it was time to include it in the dictionary."
But "Wiki Wiki", meaning "quick" in Hawaiian, has a very different
meaning in its new host language: a type of Web page designed so that its
contents can be edited by anyone who accesses it.
That the word acquired a new meaning is attributed to the fact that
commenting and editing on Internet Web sites became faster, the OED's
principal editor of new words, Graeme Diamond said.
"There was no delay in submitting a comment," Diamond said.
The most famous example is the popular Internet encyclopaedia
Wikipedia. Diamond said new Internet-age concept of "wiki" fits well with
the 120-year-old dictionary.
