‘Satoshi’ Now Appears in the Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) revealed in an announcement last week that it has added ‘satoshi’ – the smallest unit of a bitcoin – to its word gallery.

The new word, satoshi, is defined in the famous English dictionary as:

the smallest monetary unit in the Bitcoin digital payment system, equal to one hundred millionth of a bitcoin.

The announcement goes on to accurately recognize that the ‘satoshi’ cryptocurrency unit is named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the—probably pseudonymous—developer(s) of Bitcoin.

Notably, the ‘satoshi’ addition means that the Oxford English Dictionary is now home to several cryptocurrency, and blockchain-related words with the definition provided for some of the most popular ones listed below.

Bitcoin —A propitiatory name for a digital payment system introduced in 2009, having its own unit of account.

Cryptocurrency — Any of various digital payment systems operating independently of a central authority and employing cryptographic techniques to control and verify transactions in a unique unit of account; (also) the units of account of such a system, considered collectively.

OxfordDictionaries.com, an online language resource maintained by the Oxford University Press, also contains some crypto-related words including:

Blockchain — A digital ledger in which transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency are recorded chronologically and publicly.

Miner — A person who obtains units of a cryptocurrency by running computer processes to solve specific mathematical problems.”

Mine — [To] obtain units of (a cryptocurrency) by running a computer process to solve specific mathematical problems.”

In a similar update regarding the concept of cryptocurrencies subtly entering mainstream consciousness, Coinfomania reported in May that Microsoft added Bitcoin as a currency option in spreadsheet software, Excel.