Vuvuzela among new Oxford Dictionary of English entries

The World Cup and the credit crunch have all influenced the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English.

The vuvuzela, a horn instrument blown by football fans during the World Cup in South Africa, is one new entry.

And recent financial problems led to the introduction of toxic debt - debt which has a high risk of default.

The dictionary - containing the latest English words and first published in 1998 - has more than 2,000 new entries.

The 2005 edition included the phrase Ruby Murray, as rhyming slang for a curry, and chav - a pejorative term used to describe a "young lower-class person typified by brash and loutish behaviour and the wearing of [real or imitation] designer clothes".

In the latest version of the dictionary, climate change issues have given us carbon capture and storage - the process of trapping and storing carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels.

Geo-engineering - the manipulation of environmental processes in an attempt to counteract the effects of global warming - has also made it into the dictionary, as has quantitative easing - the introduction of new money into the national supply by a central bank.

And the internet has produced a rich supply of words and phrases.

New entries include social media - websites and applications used for social networking - as well as microblogging - the posting of short entries on a blog.

Other terms included in the latest edition of the dictionary include staycation - a holiday spent in one's home country - and national treasure - someone or something regarded as emblematic of a nation's cultural heritage.