To Obama, or not to Obama

Of late, the folks at Oxford Dictionary made the decision to render upon the word ?Obama? the duty and privilege of earning the right to become a verb in the English dictionary.

Upon entering their secret den where such grand decisions are made, I was able to glance at the variant explanations they intend to publish in 2017. These interpretations were scripted by hand, which only shows how early Oxford is in this process.

For those unfamiliar with the process of adding words to our official language, it starts by monitoring written words in new published materials. Specifically, Oxford editors look for

1. The word itself
2. They look for examples of how the word is used
3. They also look for who is using that word or how important these experts are within the domain of their skills

Explaining ?a new word is a development of interpreting them as widely as possible and then short list the final versions to be printed. Here is the first interpretation I read:

Obama verb (O?-ba-ma)

1. To live in fear (O?) by crying out (ba) for one?s mother (ma).

This one sounded to me like someone does not like our President.

Obama verb (O-bam-a)

2. To be surprised (O), and angry enough to dunk a basketball (bam), and to exhale an air of relief (a)

Sportswriters should love this one.

Obama verb (Oba-ma)

3. To call both parents simultaneously.

The Millennials, mainstream journalists, and organized labor will love this one.

Obama verb (Ob-a-ma)

4. To hope, as your GYN tells you are pregnant, that your child will grow to be like Obama.

Female voters who voted for Obama will rejoice over that one.

Obama verb (O-b-a-m-a)

5. To be confused of what is exactly your mission on earth is. To seek answers by re-visiting the era of our 44^th President.

Mohammad lives, I guess.

The scripted notes ended right there; however, at the bottom of the page there was a note to look for Obama as a noun in the next draft.

I cannot wait for that one.