Brexit, as you’re probably more than aware by now, is a pretty big deal. So big in fact that it’s now been given its very own definition by the Oxford English Dictionary.
Nearly six months on from the EU referendum, the term has been added to the OED with the ‘impressive’ speed at which it has become widely used being noted.
Lexicographers have been good enough to clarify that Brexit is ‘the (proposed) withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union, and the political process associated with it.’
Continuing, the definition reads: ‘Sometimes used specifically with reference to the referendum held in the UK on June 23 2016, in which a majority of voters favoured withdrawal from the EU.’
Lexicographers also noted that the term had initially started out life by filling an empty void in the English language, before being used globally in many languages.
Added to the OED this month, Brexit is joined by Grexit – ‘the (potential) withdrawal of Greece from the eurozone monetary union’ – as a new addition.
