Lovely jubbly dictionary

If Del Boy heard the news, he'd be writing out a bill for royalties.
His catchphrase, lovely jubbly, has been officially recognised as part of the English language.

The accolade for the Only Fools and Horses character, played by David Jason, comes in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English, published today.

The reference book lists the phrase, along with around 3,000 other new entries, defining it as an exclamation 'used to express delight or approbation; excellent'.

Such recognition does not come lightly. Spokesman Claire Turner said: 'We have to wait a certain time before we include words or phrases.

'It would not be right to include a word and then find it disappear from use after a few months. Lovely jubbly is very well-known and has stood the test of time.'

Other new inclusions may leave linguistic purists bewildered. They include 'cyberslacker', an employee who uses the internet too much at work, ' blamestorming', group discussion on assigning responsibility for a mistake, and 'muggle', a person not conversant with a particular skill.