GR8 news -- txt MSGS r now in the COD.

Confused? Help is at hand. It means "Great news -- text messages are now in the Concise Oxford Dictionary". In Britain alone, more than one million mobile phone text messages are sent every hour, so the Concise Oxford Dictionary has decided to include the shorthand language in its revised edition published on Thursday.

SMS, or short messaging service, has been given its own appendix. The section features dozens of examples of the abbreviations which have become a second language to millions of young people.

"We have been monitoring the phenomenal growth of text messaging with great attention: its influence is now such that we felt it was time to treat it as an integral part of English," said the dictionary's publishing manager, Judy Pearsall.

Examples that have found a place in the dictionary include BBLR (be back later) and HAND (have a nice day). They are joined by so-called emoticons -- representations of facial expressions such as
:-) and :-(

The latest edition also includes new words judged to have entered everyday conversational use.

Minger, meaning "an unattractive or unpleasant person" makes an entry, along with chowhound, defined by the dictionary as "a greedy person", and tweenies, "children trying to appear older than they are".

(Agencies)