Twitter, MySpace, Facebook revamping dictionaries

Slang used on social networking websites such as Twitter, MySpace and Facebook will soon enter Australian dictionaries.

Words such as noob, pwnd, blag, hashtag, tweet and unfriend with a high online presence and currency were said to be changing the spoken language.

Macquarie Dictionary editor Sue Butler accorded the outburst of new expressions to the explosion of online communities.

"It is really only now that people are building these blogs and chatrooms to give (these words) better coverage. So now we can get closer than we've ever come before to cover the full range of language," the Couriermail quoted her as saying.

But she added, "They have to be words people can expect to use without needing to explain them. This shows they aren't just personal inventions or in-jokes."