Hentai is added to the latest edition of the OED

Ryo Chan said:
...hth does a "Japanese" word get into an ENGLISH Dictionary

we really are losing our identity
The only things I can think of which people consider "English" are cliched ideas of London. England doesn't have an identity, at least not one I can identify (or identify with).

Language is changing all the time. If a foreign word comes into common enough usage and people know what it means, it might as well be in the dictionary. I don't consider it a faux pas.
 
Ryo Chan said:
Hentei or Hentai?

and hth does a "Japanese" word get into an ENGLISH Dictionary

we really are losing our identity

Typo has been corrected :oops:

Otaku and Hikikomori have been added in previous editions.
 
ayase said:
Ryo Chan said:
...hth does a "Japanese" word get into an ENGLISH Dictionary

we really are losing our identity
The only things I can think of which people consider "English" are cliched ideas of London. England doesn't have an identity, at least not one I can identify (or identify with).
I think of Yorkshire when I think of English identity.
 
Exactly. England only has regional identities, and most of those are as clichéd and out of date as the London ones. Our accents are really the only thing which tells us apart now we're rapidly approaching monoculture (and even those are being homogenised by the media we consume).

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Ryo Chan said:
Hentei or Hentai?

and hth does a "Japanese" word get into an ENGLISH Dictionary

we really are losing our identity

There are tons of words in the english dictionary of foreign origin. rendezvous being one, tsunami, kamikaze, schadenfreude. These are all words which we have accepted into our langauge as it evolves so it makes sense to include it. If we only had "english" words in the dictionary we'd have very few left.
 
Stuart-says-yes said:
Will-O'-The-Wisp said:
Apparently "Lol" and "OMG" have also been added, there goes my faith in humanity

Really? bloody hell, now kids can actually get away with putting that into there literature, not that it stopped them before. It really irks me when someone can't find a better way to express how they feel other than to say "OMG ROFL XD 1337", I mean sometimes there are appropriate times when one can use "Lol" when looking at a bemusing image, that doesn't really require much input from one's self, however when one's own acquaintance, whom tends not to lean towards the use of such in descriptive words, began to pronounce said words, I realised the balance had shifted somewhere.

Just because it's in the dictionary doesn't mean kids can "get away" with using it. It's still slang and slang is still generally frowned upon in schools no matter how ingrained in uk culture.
 
ayase said:
Exactly. England only has regional identities, and most of those are as clichéd and out of date as the London ones. Our accents are really the only thing which tells us apart now we're rapidly approaching monoculture (and even those are being homogenised by the media we consume).

I think England does definitely still have a strong indentity, we may be losing it or whatever but it is still definitely there.

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mangaman74 said:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.co.uk/interest/2011-03-25/oxford-english-dictionary-adds-the-word-hentai

Pronunciation: /hɛnˈtʌɪ/
noun
[mass noun]
a subgenre of the Japanese genres of manga and anime, characterized by overtly sexualized characters and sexually explicit images and plots.

Origin:
1990s: Japanese, literally 'abnormal, perverted'

Ha!

This always makes me 'Hmm' with annoyance. When playing Scrabble, or referencing certain 'loan words'; be they in the French, Japanese, Chinese or any other language, you always see to get a hit and miss in terms of validity. We all know the English language is an exclusive domain (to many, at least!), though it's just ridiculous sometimes!

An example I believe proves this is the universally accepted adoption of the honorific 'san', yet the invalidity of the more important 'tenno'. Also, 'zen' seems to be twaddlespeak to many English dictionaries.
 
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