PEDANTS and Scrabble purists beware, this column contains words and phrasing that will (figuratively, if not literally), drive you to despair.

Every year, there’s a story about new words added to the Oxford English Dictionary, usually centred around how ridiculous the new additions are.

But, whether you like it or not, you don’t have to be Susie Dent to realise language is constantly evolving and the older we get, the harder it is to a) keep up and b) accept.

This week, the makers of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary announced their sixth edition - four years since its last revamp - would include a whole bunch of words that purists will no doubt cock a snoot at.

Among the 300 new entries are “beatdown”, “zomboid”, “twerk”, “sheeple”, “macaron”, “emoji”, “facepalm”, “frowny”, “yowza”, “zen” and “hivemind”.

Now, I’m aware of most of those words, and have even used a couple of them (albeit ironically or repeating them in disbelief that someone has used them without irony), but I’m surprised some of them are considered worthy of inclusion in the dictionary.

More excitingly for the texters and those struggling at Scrabble, new two-letter beauties such as “OK” and “ew”, have made the cut for the first time, while “arancini” - you know, those delicious Italian rice balls? - has also made the grade, meaning you can dump a few of those pesky vowels.

Lexicographer and editor at large at Merriam-Webster Peter Sokolowski said entries like “ew” showed the evolution of language, and the way “transcribed speech” was becoming more prominent and acceptable.

He said: “I think ‘ew’ is interesting because it expresses something new about what we’re seeing in language, which is to say that we are now incorporating more of what you might call transcribed speech.

“Sounds like ‘ew’ or ‘mm-hmm’, or other things like ‘coulda’ or ‘kinda’. Traditionally, they were not in the dictionary but because so much of our communication is texting and social media that is written language, we are finding more transcribed speech and getting a new group of spellings for the dictionary.”

It’s not just the addition of new words to our lexicons either.

For years, “literally” has been misunderstood and misused to the point where it’s become acceptable.

“OMG, then I dropped my coffee right in front of the barista! It was so embarrassing, I literally died!”

Oh, for f... No, you didn’t. But if you had literally died it would have made for a much better story.

“Like” is another word which has evolved to the point where it has essentially replaced the comma, particularly in speech from the younger generations.

“So I dropped the coffee and I was like OMG! Like, what do I do now?”

Urgh! We’re pretty much at the point now where “like” has become the verbal equivalent of a standing ovation on X Factor - utterly devoid of meaning, and used for the sole purpose of extending some meaningless content.

The problem is, the harder you try to hang on to the old ways, the more upset you’re going to be as the new ways become more commonplace.

Is the lesson then to just put up and shut up?

Just accept that this is the way things are now, go along with it like good sheeple?

Not according to technology, apparently - it’s worth noting that while writing this column, it became clear that the all-knowing spellcheck system at The Press refuses to recognise 13 of the 17 new examples above.

In short, we’re okay with “OK”, on nodding terms with “mm-hmm”, reasonably happy with “kinda”, and - bafflingly - giving “emoji” a big old smiley face.

Yes, there’ll always be time to lament the way things were and the way people used to speak, and yes, it’s all right to be worried that the rise of text-speak and the emoji risks the infantilisation of the English language.

But language is a wonderful thing, and while I may not be particularly fond of some of the new twists and turns it takes as it evolves, the very fact we can monitor its evolution on such a regular basis is absolutely fascinating.