Bebo to find the voice of youth with poll

UK-- Publishing house HarperCollins and social networking site Bebo have teamed up to decide which teen slang words will be included in the next edition of the Collins English Dictionary.

Bebo is running a poll to decide which words, such as fiend, breh and pinky, will be put forward to appear in the forthcoming edition of the famous dictionary.

The poll went live today and closes in the summer when a team of experts will research the origins of the winning words and decide which ones will be included.

The words have been put into six categories – money-orientated, cool, friends, girls/boys, street language and put downs.

Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins, said: “Teenage slang is notoriously hard to pin down if you rely on the normal channels; by the time it's filtered into publications, broadcasts and eventually mainstream speech its too late, young people have stopped using it.”

For those that didn't know, breh means boy, a pinky is a £50 note and fiend is to be addicted to something.

Author: James Verrinder