From metaverses and the blogosphere to wikis and cookies, "weblish" not only brings a new vernacular with it; it also totes entirely new sensibilities and theories - even if they make some shudder semantic disgust. These new web words are being accepted by dictionaries and winning literary prizes, according to Cyberia, a Globe and Mail blog.

The word "blook," meaning a book based on blogs, was celebrated by the Lulu Blooker Prize and was even accepted as a real word by the latest edition of the Collins English Dictionary. The two-year-old prize was created by Bob Young, CEO of Lulu, a self-publishing site. Young believes the tech revolution has ushered in a "new golden age for words, the greatest since Shakespeare's."

This year, the prize awarded the word "folksonomy," a hybrid of "folks" and "taxonomy" that is defined as the web-classifying system by tagging key words.

Meanwhile, lexicologists at the Collins English Dictionary, which is also known as the dictionary most likely to accept new words, has made the following words an official part of the vernacular: "file sharing," "Generation C," meaning the people who create and publish web content; "Godcast," a religious service in digital format; "Metaverse," a 3D virtual world; and "Google bombing," the practice of attempting to affect the ranking of websites provided by Google.