Oxford English Dictionary said it has added 29 Nigerian words and expressions in the January updates to the dictionary.
OED revealed in a blog posted on the dictionary’s website that the 29 Nigerian entries form part of the more than 550 new words, senses, and sub-entries added to the Oxford English Dictionary
OED’s World English editor, Danica Salazar, said: “The majority of these new additions are either borrowings from Nigerian languages, or unique Nigerian coinages that have only begun to be used in English in the second half of the twentieth century, mostly in the 1970s and 1980s.”
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‘Next tomorrow,’ is one of the new entries into the dictionary. The expression is regarded as the oldest among the over 25 uniquely Nigerian words/expressions.
According to Salazar, ‘next tomorrow’ was first used in written English as a noun in 1953, and as an adverb in 1964.
Others such as ‘buka,’ ‘bukateria’ and ‘severally’ also made the dictionary.
The full list of the new entries is 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.
You can see the full list of words to be added in this update here.
The OED publishes four updates a year. The next update will be added to the dictionary in March 2020.
