THEY may be more commonly heard on popular TV series and seen on the web.

But now words including side boob (the side part of a woman’s breast), YOLO (short for you only live once) and listicle (an Internet article in the form of a numbered or bullet-pointed list) have made it into the online Oxford Dictionaries, published by Oxford University Press.

Other new entries announced today in the latest upgrade to the free online dictionary include neckbeard (growth of hair on a man’s neck), side-eye (a sidelong glance expressing disapproval or contempt), adorbs (short for adorable), tech-savvy and cray.

Editors said changes in how we find news and entertainment are part of the reason our language is changing.

Use of the word binge-watch – to watch lots of episodes of a particular television show – has become more common over the past two years, with spikes around the Netflix series of House of Cards and Orange is The New Black.

Oxford Dictionaries editor Katherine Connor Martin said last night: “One of the advantages of our unique language monitoring programme is that it enables us to explore how English language evolves differently across the world.

“Some new slang and informal words catch on much more quickly in a particular variety of English.

“For instance, in our monitoring sample, ‘side boob’ is more than 10 times more common in the UK than in the US, whereas ‘adorbs’ is used about four times more often in the US.”

Among the new entries are:

  • Air punch: Thrusting a clenched fist up into the air, typically as a gesture of triumph.
  • Bank of Mum and Dad: Relying on your parents for financial help.
  • Bro-hug: Friendly embrace between two men
  • Cotch: Spend time relaxing; stay or sleep somewhere on a temporary basis.
  • E-cig: Another term for an electronic cigarette.
  • Humblebrag: To make a self-deprecating statement in order to draw attention to something you’re proud of.
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