Oxford English Dictionary Now Includes <3 [Heart]

If you spend any time on the Internet -- no matter your age -- you should know what <3 is (if you don't, learn it, now). Maybe you already use it daily, perhaps hourly. You may have explained it, kindly, patiently, to the less symbol-savvy around you, who have not embraced its value, its efficiency, or how, in gchat, it starts as a simple "less than" plus "3" and turns into an adorable little pink heart. (Oh, but they will!) At any rate, if you are one of the people behind the Oxford English Dictionary, the "authority on English language," you have discovered it and added it to your pages. We ♥ this.

Via the Daily Mail,

The graphic symbol - which will be found alongside the word 'heart' and listed as a verb meaning 'to love' - is the first of its kind to be included in the comprehensive reference work.

New York gets a shout-out, too:

The symbol's most famous use is probably in a rebus to promote New York - 'I [heart] NY' - which came about in the mid-70s when the Deputy Commissioner of the New York State Department of Commerce hired an advertising agency to develop a marketing campaign for the city.

Thanks, Milton Glaser, for putting us on the map!

Other words recently added to the OED: muffin top, OMG, scrunchy, and, yes, banh mi. We <3 banh mi.

OMG! Oxford English Dictionary grows a heart: Graphic symbol for love (and that exclamation) are added as WORDS [Daily Mail, via Pat's Papers]