New words added to Oxford English Dictionary

Words including “class” and “spice bag” have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in its latest update.

A number of new words including eight Hiberno-English/Irish-English words have been added to mark popular words and phrases.

The OED said it wanted to incorporate “loan words” – words that would be coined as “untranslatable” but are used with enough frequency by people who speak English alongside other languages that they have become part of “the vocabulary of their variety of English”.

The new additions for the first quarter of 2025 are from Ireland, southeast Asia and South Africa, BBC reported.

Full Statement from OED

Much has been written about so-called ‘untranslatable words’—words and phrases in one language that cannot be translated into another. Of course, no word is entirely untranslatable, especially in the hands of a skilled translator, who can use various strategies to express something from a source language that has no direct equivalent in the target language. Often, when we talk about untranslatable words, what we are actually talking about are words that have been lexicalized in one language but not in others, which is what makes them particularly intriguing. After all, wouldn’t it be useful for English speakers to have a specific word for sunlight dappling through leaves, just like speakers of Japanese do? Or a particular word for the action of sitting outside enjoying a beer, like the one Norwegians have?

For people who speak English alongside other languages, there is an easy way to fill such a lexical gap—simply borrowing the untranslatable word from another language. Sometimes, they do this with enough frequency that the borrowed word eventually becomes part of the vocabulary of their variety of English. A few examples of such loan words are featured in this quarter’s OED update, which includes new additions from Southeast Asia, South Africa, and Ireland.

Gigil! New words from the Philippines

A word that appears regularly on lists of untranslatable words is gigil. Originally from Tagalog but now also used in Philippine English (dating back to 1990 according to OED evidence), gigil is a feeling we get when we see someone or something cute, a feeling so intense that it gives us the irresistible urge to tightly clench our hands, grit our teeth, and pinch or squeeze whomever or whatever it is we find so adorable, whether it be a chubby-cheeked baby or a fluffy little kitten. Gigil is a pithy name for such a strange, paradoxical emotion, and apart from its use as a noun, it can also be employed as an adjective to describe the person experiencing it. So, if a Filipino says they’re gigil, they’re just dealing with overwhelming feelings (usually positive).

A much earlier borrowing from Tagalog among this set of new Philippine English words is salakot (first attested 1841), a type of lightweight Filipino hat that is typically domed or conical in shape, with a wide brim, and often has a spiked or ornamental finial at the tip of the crown. Commonly worn by farmers as protection against the weather, the hat has become an important symbol of Filipino culture and is now also worn as part of traditional Filipino attire during festivals and other celebrations. The salakot’s iconic shape is mirrored by the kababayan (2002), a small, sweet, typically yellow cake similar to a muffin, which can be found in most Filipino neighbourhood bakeries. Kababayan (1915)is also a word that Filipinos use to call their fellow Filipinos, or people who come from the same Philippine region or town as them. The word combines the Tagalog prefix ka-, expressing companionship, with –babayan, a variant with reduplicated first syllable of the noun bayan, meaning ‘town’ or ‘country’.

Lumpia (1924)is another English word borrowed from Tagalog, but also from Malay, from Indonesian, and perhaps even Dutch. It is the name of any of various types of East and Southeast Asian spring rolls, typically consisting of a very thin pancake filled with minced meat, seafood, or vegetables, rolled into a cylinder, sometimes deep-fried, and served with a dipping sauce. The Southeast Asian word comes from the Hokkien word lūn-pián, from lūn ‘smooth, moist’ and pián ‘flat round cake’. In its variant form loempia, it could have been borrowed into English via Dutch loempia, or it could just be reflecting a form of the Malay word with Dutch-based spelling.

A staple of Filipino parties at home and abroad is singing. Filipinos are known the world over for their vocal prowess, but even those who have not been blessed with the national talent are welcome to participate in the national pastime of videoke (1990), the Filipino version of karaoke. During sweltering summers in the Philippines, they can do so more comfortably while wearing a sando (1943), a sleeveless garment worn under or instead of a shirt.

Other Philippine English entries in this update are not loan words, but idiosyncratic uses of existing English words. In the Philippines, load (2003) is credit purchased for a pay-as-you-go mobile phone; CR (1987), short for comfort room, is a toilet; and a terror (1967)teacher is one who is strict, harsh, or demanding.

The last new entry in this update is of significance to the history of Philippine English. A Thomasite (1908) was an American teacher in the Philippines during the period of American occupation from 1899 to 1946. The first group of over 500 schoolteachers arrived in Manila on 21 August 1901 on the U.S. Army Transport Thomas, hence the name they were later collectively given. The Thomasites were tasked with establishing a new public school system, teaching basic education, and training Filipino teachers using English as the primary language of instruction, thereby, for good or ill, helping transform the Philippines into the Anglophone country it is today.

Alamak! New words from Malaysia and Singapore

A category of words that often defy direct translation are exclamations that express different emotions. An example of such an interjection is alamak (earliest seen 1952), one of the new words from Malaysia and Singapore included in this update. Borrowed from Malay, this colloquial exclamation is used to convey surprise, shock, dismay, or outrage. The word’s ultimate origin is uncertain; it could have come from ala ‘highest, exalted’, from the Arabic aʿlā ‘higher, highest’ or Allah ‘god’, from Arabic allāh, combined with mak ‘mother’, perhaps originally after the Portuguese expression Mãe de Deus, literally ‘Mother of God’, Santa Mãe, literally ‘Holy Mother’, or another similar utterance. A comparable interjection, alamah, is used in Kristang, a Malay-Portuguese creole language.

The names of local dishes also tend to be borrowed into English rather than given an Anglicized name. A few examples of Malay food terms are included in this quarterly update. Ketupat (1886) is a small rice cake boiled in a pouch of woven palm leaves, originating in Indonesia but also popular in Brunei, Malaysia, and Singapore. Ketupat made with rice is wrapped in a diamond shape with woven coconut palm leaves, while a version made with glutinous rice is wrapped in a triangle shape with woven fan palm leaves. It is usually eaten with satay or other dishes and is traditionally served at festive occasions.

Otak-otak (1929) is a Southeast Asian dish consisting of ground fish or other seafood mixed with spices and coconut milk, wrapped in banana or palm leaves, and cooked by steaming or grilling over an open charcoal fire. It is usually served as an accompaniment to nasi lemak (1935), a Malay dish of rice cooked in coconut milk and flavoured with pandan leaf, served with various garnishes such as cucumber slices, fried fish, roasted peanuts, cooked egg, and sambal. It is usually eaten for breakfast, just like kaya toast (1989), a sandwich consisting of two slices of toasted bread spread with butter and kaya, a jam made from coconut milk, eggs, and sugar, usually flavoured with pandan leaf. Kaya toast is also a popular afternoon snack, typically served in Malaysian and Singaporean kopitiams, accompanied by a half-boiled egg (1931), an egg which has been cooked briefly in freshly boiled water such that the yolk and the white remain runny, then cracked open and served in a bowl, seasoned with dark soy sauce and white pepper.

Two examples of Malay dishes that did get Anglicized names are fish head curry (1972) and steamboat (1960). Fish head curry is a dish influenced by Chinese and South Indian cuisine, consisting of a large fish head, usually of a sea bream or snapper, cooked in a tangy tamarind-based curry gravy with vegetables such as aubergine and okra. Steamboat is a dish consisting of thinly sliced meat, vegetables, etc., dipped in boiling stock by the diner at the table. The word was first used to indicate a metal pot, often with a central flue, placed over a heat source at the table, used for cooking and serving the dish.

All this talk of food might inspire one to get a takeaway, or to tapau (1997), as they say in Malaysian English and Singapore English. Tapau comes from the Malay word and its Cantonese etymon dá bāau ‘to pack, to pack up food to take away’, which is from dá ‘to beat, to tie or do up’, combined with bāau ‘to wrap, to package’.

In Malaysia, a mat rempit (2004) is a (typically young) man who participates in illegal motorcycle street racing and often performs dangerous stunts. They can be described as terror—as in Philippine English, in Malaysian English terror can also be used as an adjective. In Singapore and Malaysia, terror can mean ‘terrible’ or ‘awful’ (1977), but it can also be a general term of approval meaning ‘admirable, excellent’ (1997). Terror is frequently preceded by wah and followed by lah, as in this approving 2020 social media post quoted in the OED entry: ‘Wah! So terror lah.’

Yoh! New words from South Africa

Some of South Africa’s many languages have contributed various loan words to this quarterly update. The interjection yoh, which the OED was able to trace to 1855, comes from two of them: it is an imitative utterance that is probably after the Afrikaans jo and the Xhosa yho or yo. Yoh in South African English is a cry or exclamation used to express various emotions or reactions, such as surprise, wonder, admiration, shock, or distress.

Also from Afrikaans are two expressions that relate to feelings of frustration and anger. The adjective gatvol (first attested 1980) is a South African slang term describing a person who has had enough; one who is extremely annoyed, unhappy, or bored, especially with a state of affairs that has persisted for a long time. The hell-in (1966) is a colloquial phrase that is used predicatively to talk about someone who is furious or fed up. It is modelled after the Afrikaans phrase die hel in, which literally translates to ‘in the hell’—in Afrikaans, it is grammatical for the preposition in to be in final position, so that syntactic characteristic was borrowed into English along with the meaning.

Tjoekie (1977) is a similarly colloquial term for prison or jail. It was introduced into South Africa by English-speaking immigrants from India, but it made its way into South African English via Afrikaans. It is related to an earlier slang term for word jail, chokey, a variant of chowki, which traces its roots back to Hindi, and ultimately, Sanskrit.

Seshweshwe (1956) and shweshwe (1973) are borrowings from Southern Sotho referring to a type of printed cotton fabric, originally dyed with indigo but now available in various colours, featuring intricate, usually geometric, patterns and typically used for traditional Southern African clothes or accessories.

A makarapa (1999) was originally a hard hat worn by a miner or construction worker, but it is now more known for its use by sports fans, especially football fans, who paint and elaborately decorate these hats with flags, horns, and badges and wear them at games to show support for their favourite teams. The word comes from a Bantu language of South Africa, although the exact donor language has not been identified. Similar words meaning ‘hard hat’ or ‘helmet’ exist in Tswana (makarapa, plural of lekarapa) and Fanagalo (makalapa, apparently singular). Other comparable words include Tswana lekarapa ‘miner’ and Northern Sotho lekarapa ‘(returned) migrant worker, especially a miner’, both with the plural form makarapa.

Of unknown origin is zol, the South African colloquial term for marijuana, which can be used to refer to the intoxicating and hallucinogenic drug prepared from the marijuana plant (recorded earliest in 1946), as well as to a hand-rolled cigarette containing marijuana (1949). Another informal South African word whose origin is uncertain is the adjective moggy (1984), applied to a person who is extremely irrational or out of touch with reality; to go moggy is to lose control of one’s emotions or behaviour.

Finally, sharp-sharp is a casual way to say hello or goodbye in South African English (1991), and also a way to compliment someone’s style or just to comment on how generally excellent or fantastic they are (2018).

Class! New words from Ireland

Irish is another language from which English has borrowed a wealth of new words, with one of them being added to the OED in this update. Ludraman, from Irish liúdramán or lúdramán, is a colloquial and derogatory term for a lazy, unproductive, or stupid person. The earliest evidence of this word’s use in English is in James Joyce’s seminal 1922 novel Ulysses, in which the author spells it loodheramaun, one of the eleven different spellings for the word recorded in the OED.

Also included in this batch of new Irish English words is blaa (earliest seen 1960), the name of a soft white bread roll dusted with flour that is particularly associated with Waterford, Ireland. This type of bread roll is usually thought to have been introduced to Waterford by Huguenot immigrants in the 17th century, though its exact history is difficult to determine. Possible origins could be the French words blanc ‘white’ and blé ‘wheat’, but neither of these suggestions can be substantiated.

Class is how main character Erin describes her hometown of Derry, Northern Ireland in an episode of the first season of the popular sitcom Derry Girls. Creator Lisa McGee’s 2018 script is quoted in the OED’s entry for the Irish and northern English usage of class as a general term of approval, which the dictionary dates back to 1981. Another usage that Irish English shares with other varieties of English is the use of mineral to mean a carbonated soft drink (1893). While still current in Irish English and West African English, this sense of mineral is now apparently unusual in British English, except as a commercial designation for soft drinks of this type.

The debs (1980), short for debs’ ball, is a formal social event held for students in their final year of secondary school, usually towards the end of the school year. The debs is an important rite of passage for Irish teenagers, who are careful not to act the maggot (1946)—behave foolishly—lest they end up feeling morto (1991)—extremely embarrassed.

These days, any good night out in Ireland is best concluded by going to a Chinese food outlet or fish and chip shop to get a spice bag. This is a takeaway meal typically consisting of chips, shredded deep-fried chicken, fried onions, red and green peppers, chilli peppers, and jalapeño peppers, tossed together in a bag with various spices and often served with curry sauce for dipping. The spice bag was invented in a Chinese takeaway restaurant in Dublin called Sunflower around 2006, and indeed the OED’s first quotation for this entry is a social media post from 2012 of someone contemplating a trip to Sunflower to grab one.

An Irish creation inspired by Chinese cuisine, with Mexican and Indian elements that all somehow work together to form a delicious whole, the spice bag is not unlike the World Englishes whose diverse vocabulary we discuss in these quarterly updates to the OED—absorbing novel expressions from various languages and cultures, introducing new connotations and usage patterns to the lexicon, ensuring that English speakers have just the right words to say what they want to say.

Special thanks to the OED’sconsultants for lending their expertise to the dictionary’s World English coverage this quarter: Dr Lisa Lim for Singapore English, Prof Raymond Hickey for Irish English, and Prof Stefanie Pillai for Malaysian English.