'Muppet,' 'Eeyorish' join Oxford Dictionary of English

[Beebers]

Pick on America week? Perish the thought. It'd take more than a week for any jibes to sink in and register.

It will behoove one to note that the first jibe sank in and registered immediately, as evidenced by our instantaneous response, and did not necessitate a week's worth of thought. Additional jibes are duly noted within moments and deemed unseemly at best. They are also quite a downer, particularly at this time of year.

 

[Gusworld]

I'm a little astounded that everyone has been willing to attack the dictionary definition based on how it was paraphrased by a journalist. This is what the actual definition in the ODE says:

muppet
• noun Brit. informal an incompetent or foolish person.
- ORIGIN 1990s: from Muppet, the generic name given to various puppets and marionettes created by Jim Henson (1936-90) for the children's television programmes Sesame Street and The Muppet Show.

Given that the ODE aims to reflect the usage of English in the UK (and not anywhere else), this is a perfectly reasonable definition. (And before someone else says 'The Muppets existed before Sesame Street!', remember that their visibility in the UK was basically zero prior to TMS. No Ed Sullivan, no commercials.)

Dictionaries reflect the ways in which language is used; it isn't their job to be prescriptive and say 'No-one should use this word this way, because it used to mean this'. Language changes over time, and dictionaries are an important part of documenting that change.

Cheers
Gus