New Words For New Millennium

"Viagra" and "Y2K" made it, along with other words that reflect life and culture at the dawning of a new millennium.

The new edition of the Oxford Concise Dictionary was published Wednesday, with thousands of new words culled from voluminous lists compiled each month by the Oxford World Reading Program.

Besides the anti-impotence drug Viagra and Y2K (the year 2000), the new standard English dictionary includes the cyber-terms like "JPEG", a computer format for compressing images; "LISTSERV", a kind of electronic mailing list; and "Webcast", live video transmitted over the Internet.

Also in the new edition are "Norplant", the contraceptive implant; "GM", short for genetically modified, and "shaken baby syndrome", a brain injury in infants who have been violently jolted.

Truly reflecting the times is another new entry, "Kosovar", a native of war-torn Kosovo.

It seems American and other English speaking cultures outside the U.K. are having a profound effect on the English language. The dictionary's publisher, Oxford University Press, says nearly one-fifth of the entries now in the dictionary, which is updated every five years, originate from outside Britain.