Facebook finds a place in the Collins English Dictionary

The social networking website Facebook has been included as a word, both a noun and a verb, in the 2008 edition of the Collins English Dictionary.

London, Dec 20 : The social networking website Facebook has been included as a word, both a noun and a verb, in the 2008 edition of the Collins English Dictionary.

The noun form is defined as 'a popular social networking site', and the verb form as 'to search for (a person's profile) on the Facebook website'.

As for the site, it facilitates users to carry friends' comments and pictures on a personal webpage, which can be seen by others unless secured.

"Facebook has been the phenomenon of 2007, with 200,000 signing up every day," The Sun quoted a Collins spokesman, as saying.

In an acknowledgement of how people might reveal potentially embarrassing information on the site, the dictionary gives the example: "I thought one of the interviewees was perfect for the job, until I Facebooked him."

Words like - 'pimp' and 'poke' also have new definitions related to the site.

Collins said that the first means to make a Facebook page more attractive is by adding extras, such as - videos.

And "poke", which Facebook itself says is indefinable, is defined as "to attract the attention of (another user)".

ANI