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It may have been a staple of women's fashion for decades. But the LBD (short for Little Black Dress) has only now been officially recognised in the dictionary.

The abbreviation is one of more than 2,000 words and phrases added to the third edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English, published today.

Also making it in is the vuvuzela, the football fan's trumpet which noisily blasted into the public consciousness at this summer's World Cup. Other new entrants include tweetup (a meeting arranged through Twitter); cheeseball (a person lacking taste or style); and a turducken (a roast dish consisting of a small chicken inside a duck inside a turkey). They are joined by bromance, which describes a close but nonsexual friendship between men.

Further new entries have been influenced by the internet, such as microblogging (posting short entries on a blog) and defriend  -  to remove a friend on Facebook. Familiar phrases such as 'on the naughty step' and 'national treasure' are also included.

A spokesman for publishers Oxford University Press said the dictionary, which was first published in 1998 and is not to be confused with the Oxford English Dictionary, uses a 'word bank' that is continually updated, making it 'fully based on evidence of how language is really used'. We're sure Audrey Hepburn would be proud!


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