Vuvuzela makes its way into Oxford dictionary

Vuvuzelas,the plastic horns that provided the soundtrack for the World Cup in South Africa,have blared their way into a dictionary containing the latest in the English language,published on Thursday.

The deafening trumpets are one new entry in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English,which is based on how language is really used. Their monotone drone could be heard throughout matches during the tournament,and came in for criticism from both players and spectators. The new accolade for the horns,whose buzzing has been compared to a hornets’ nest,came after “vuvuzela” was voted the word of the World Cup in a survey of global linguists last month.

It was chosen by 75% of more than 320 linguists from over 60 countries,who were asked to choose the word with the biggest impact on the tournament. Vuvuzela was just one of more than 2,000 new entries in the third edition of the dictionary,which was first published in 1998.