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A.Word.A.Day--full monty

Pronunciation: WAV or RealAudio

full monty (ful MON-tee) noun, adjective; Also Full Monty, full Monty

1. Everything that's needed or possible or appropriate: the whole nine yards.

[Origin unknown.]

2. Complete nudity.

[Popularized by the 1997 movie of the same name where a group of unemployed steel-workers turn to stripping.]

"However, I found it easy to get comfortable with the toolkit by building a full-featured NT with all the goodies (the Full Monty configuration)."
James Metzger, Using Windows NT Embedded 4.0, Dr. Dobb's Journal (San Mateo), Apr 2001.

A couple of weeks ago, the folks at the Oxford English Dictionary decided to add a few hundred words to the dictionary. That would not be newsworthy in itself -- the online edition permits incorporation of new words easily and the editors of the dictionary continually assay new words alphabetically and add them to the dictionary. What's unusual is that this time they decided to add the words out-of-sequence, words that otherwise would have to wait for their turn to be anointed into the lexicon.

Unlike French, the English language needs no nanny's nod to call a word a word. If a word fills a need, it is a word, no matter whether it's in a dictionary or not. Still, the inclusion of these words in the OED, the most venerable around and a true lex icon, does help give writers their editors' imprimatur to use these words. As can be expected, a disproportionate number of these new words hail from the Internet. Many of these terms may appear to be slang, but we should remember that today's revolutionaries are tomorrow's conservatives. So use these words in your writing and conversation with the official seal of approval from the OED. This week's AWAD features five of these. -Anu

X-Bonus

Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love. -Lao Tzu, philosopher (6th century B.C.)

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