http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010614/en/britain_homer_simpson.html

Thursday June 14 10:42 AM ET

Homer Simpson's Phrase in Dictionary

OXFORD, England (AP) - Homer Simpson with an English accent?

Don't laugh - the beer-guzzling cartoon dad has hit the literary big-time. His favorite phrase has made it into the erudite Oxford English Dictionary.

The OED's online edition defines Homer's trademark ``doh!'' - usually accompanied by a Simpsonesque slap to the forehead - as ``expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly or not as planned or that one has just said or done something foolish. Also implying that another person has said or done something foolish.''

It's one of 1,250 new or revised entries published Thursday on the OED Web site. They'll all be added to the next edition of the print dictionary, but its publication is years away.

Other new additions and updated definitions include ``bad hair day,'' which caught the dictionary writers' attention after turning up in the novel ``Bridget Jones's Diary,'' and ``full monty,'' whose definition was expanded to include total nudity, thanks to the film about unemployed British steelworkers who turn to stripping.

Also added: ``retail therapy,'' ``serial monogamy'' and ``lifestyle drugs.''

-

On the Net:

http://www.oed.com/

-- Tidbit (of@the.day), June 15, 2001