Photo Via Instagram.If the breadth of Drake's influence was ever in question, it's not anymore. Along with rapper/singer/actor/host/sweater-endorser, the talented multi-hyphenate can now add "inventor of real words" to his lengthy résumé.
The online edition of the Oxford Dictionary has added the Drake-coined "YOLO" (You Only Live Once) to its ever-expanding list of colloquiums. Before all you uptight English majors start burning your dictionaries, know that the word has not been added to the far more exclusive print edition of Oxford's hallowed word bible. Yet.
It's fitting that YOLO found immortality online. The term first debuted in Drake's song "The Motto," and quickly became a youth battle cry for living life to its fullest; a carpe diem for the #generation.
It's hard to imagine something like YOLO catching on pre-Twitter, which speaks to the Internet's influence on the lexicon. In fact, Oxford added several Internet slang terms to go along with YOLO. Among them are SMH, cray, clickbait, binge-watch, hate-watch, side-boob, adorbs, listicle, and hot mess.
It's only a matter of time before "xoxo" gets its due, and what a glorious day that will be. (BBC)
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT