Dictionaries starting to recognize Twitter terms?

In the past few weeks, several news reports have documented how some  mainstream dictionaries are monitoring Twitter terms, perhaps for future inclusion in their online and/or print publications. Does this mean that Twitter is morphing from ‘new shiny’ to ‘mainstream’? Or is it just part of the normal role of lexicographers who watch how language is being used? I guess only time will tell if Twitter is just another flash in the pan.

For example, “RT this: OUP Dictionary Team monitors Twitterer’s tweets” from the Oxford University Press USA blog (http://blog.oup.com/2009/06/oxford-twitter/ where they discuss some of their findings from monitoring close on 1.5 million Tweets since January 2009.

And Twitter has made it into the 2009 edition of the AP Stylebook: http://www.ap.org/pages/about/pressreleases/pr_061109a.html

Aside: For a list of some of the abbreviations used on Twitter, see this Twitter FAQ from Brent Ozar: http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/08/twitter-101/

[Links last checked June 2009]