The vuvuzela, which became the sound of the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa, has won an entry in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English, due to be published on Thursday.
The monotone drone could be heard throughout matches during the tournament, and came in for criticism from both players and spectators.
The dictionary, which is based on how language is really used, defines the horn as a long plastic instrument, in the shape of a trumpet, which makes a very loud noise when you blow it and is popular with football fans in South Africa.
The new accolade for the horns, whose buzzing has been compared to a hornets’ nest, came after “vuvuzela” was voted the word of the World Cup in a survey of global linguists last month.
It was chosen by 75% of more than 320 linguists from more than 60 countries, who were asked to choose the word with the biggest impact on the tournament.
Vuvuzela was just one of more than 2Â 000 new entries in the third edition of the dictionary, which was first published in 1998.
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