LONDON (Kyodo) "Hikikomori," a word that has come into common usage in recent years to signify the abnormal avoidance of social contact, especially by adolescent males, has found its way into the third edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English published Thursday.
The word is one of more than 2,000 new entries in the dictionary, whose first edition was published in 1998.
The vuvuzela, the plastic horn used to cheer teams during the soccer World Cup in South Africa earlier this year, also won an entry in the latest edition.
Other new entries include "bromance," a close but nonsexual relationship between two or more men, and "staycation," a holiday or holidays spent in one's home country without going abroad.
Publisher Oxford University Press also added "frenemy" — a combination of friend and potential enemy.