'S***storm' integrated into German equivalent of Oxford English Dictionary

The word 's***storm' has officially been accepted into Duden, the German standard lexicon and their equivalent of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Duden Online defines the word as: Noun, masculine - a storm of protest in a communications medium of the Internet, which is associated in part with insulting remarks, the Independent reported.

The word has become so common in the country that it was recently used by Chancellor Angela Merkel at a public meeting and did not trigger any controversy.

According to the German news website, 'The Local', the word became popular following the financial crisis in the eurozone and an online plagiarism scandal which resulted in the then-defence minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigning from his post.

The term was also crowned as 'Anglicism of the year' in an annual contest organised by a linguist at the University of Hamburg last year.