Oxford English Dictionary (OED) adds 550 new words to its glossary, 29 of them are of Nigerian origin

OED has been constantly updating its glossary to reflect new cultural phenomena

650 and 1400 new words were introduced in October and June 2019 respectively

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has introduced 550 new words, senses and sub-entries in its latest January 2020 update, 29 of which are of Nigerian words and expressions. The new words included  mentionitis, awesomesauce, safe space, and shticky.

Jonathan Dent of Senior Assiatant Editor of OED in the new words note emphasized that the words are mainly of Scottish, Jewish and Nigerian origins.

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Oxford English Dictionary Nigerian English Words January 2020 Update

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has introduced 29 Nigerian words and expressions in the January updates to its glossary.

The news of the latest addition went viral recently despite that OED’s World English editor, Danica Salazar, Oxford English Dictionary (OED’s) World English editor did the announcement this in a blog post last week.

She said that the majority of these new additions were either borrowings from Nigerian languages or unique Nigerian coinages that had only begun to be used in English in the second half of the twentieth century, especially in the 1970s and 1980s.

Some of the words and expressions added to the updated edition of the dictionary include Buka, chop-chop, ember months, Guber, next tomorrow, and tokunbo, among others.

The full list of the new entries and their respective meanings are outlined below:

• agric, adj. & n.
• barbing salon, n.
• buka, n.
• bukateria, n.
• chop, v./6
• chop-chop, n./2
• danfo, n.
• to eat money, in eat, v.
• ember months, n.
• flag-off, n.
• to flag off in flag, v.
• gist, n./3
• gist, v./2
• guber, adj.
• Kannywood, n.
• K-leg, n.
• mama put, n.
• next tomorrow, n. & adv.
• non-indigene, adj. & n.
• okada, n.
• to put to bed, in put, v.
• qualitative, adj.
• to rub minds (together) in rub, v./1
• sef, adv.
• send-forth, n.
• severally, adv.
• tokunbo, adj.
• zone, v.
• zoning, n.

Oxford English Dictionary has been constantly adding new words in its glossary to reflect new cultural phenomena. Some of those words which may come as a surprise to many English readers are used in day-to-day conversation.

The latest before now was in October 2019 where 650 words, senses and subentries were added. About 1400 of such were also added in June 2019.