Ladettes enter dictionary

Ladettes will be celebrating their official recognition

Hard-drinking ladettes are among more than 100 new words and expressions making their debut in a revised version of the Concise Oxford Dictionary.

The word is defined as young women who behave in a boisterously assertive or crude manner and engage in heavy drinking sessions.

Other inclusions are phrases from new technology, such as ADSL, MP3 and SMS.

The Oxford University Press has approved 130 new expressions including "must-have" and "buzzy".

New words

Ladette

ADSL

MP3

SMS

Digital divide

Microscooter

Tweenagers

Adultescents

The dictionary was revised just two years ago

This new version also includes text message abbreviations and the word "text" itself has become a verb, thanks to message sending by mobile phones.

The word "at" has shrunk to an e-mail symbol, and even the mobile phone has been abbreviated to "mobe".

The dictionary also includes plenty of expressions from the world of new technology.

ADSL, the asymmetric digital subscriber line, and MP3, which compresses and downloads audio files, are accelerating the "digital divide" - defined as the gulf between those with ready access to the internet and those without.

New words are constantly being introduced, and existing words are taking on new meanings

Concise Oxford Dictionary spokesman

Microscooters makes its first appearance along with tweenagers, describing children aged between 10 and 14.

Adultescents are described as middle-aged people whose clothes and activities are typically associated with youth culture.

A spokeswoman from the Concise Oxford Dictionary said: "We are continually monitoring changes to the language in order to keep our dictionaries as up to date as possible.

"New words are constantly being introduced, and existing words are taking on new meanings."