Eight Irish-English words have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary
Sarah Slater
Eight Irish-English words have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary 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.
Blaa, the name of a soft white bread roll dusted with flour, regularly associated with Waterford, is one of the words included. It is said that the bread roll was introduced to the city in the 17th century by Huguenot immigrants.
The next word is mineral - a carbonated soft drink, still currently used in Irish English and West African English. The OED states that the earliest use was recorded in 1893.
The right of passage for Irish teenagers once they finish their Leaving Certificate are the Debs. It is short for debs' ball which is a formal social event held for students in their final year of school.
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”.
Other words include Ludraman - from the Irish liúdramán or lúdramán, a colloquial and derogatory term for lazy or unproductive, featured in James Joyce's Ulysses where it was spelt loodheramaun. There are 11 different spellings of this word recorded in the OED.
Class, viewed by the OED as a general term of approval which was used regularly by the character Erin in the popular sitcom Derry Girls, with the script quoted in the dictionary's entry. It is also used in northern English.
To act the maggot - to behave foolishly. First recorded by the OED in 1946, morto which to be extremely embarrassed with the earliest recording of this dates to 1991.
Finally, the hungry persons go to, spice bag, which the Oxford English Dictionary call a well known Irish takeaway option, consisting of chips, shredded fried chicken, fried onions, red and green peppers, chilli peppers and occasionally jalapeño peppers, tossed in a bag with spices and commonly served with curry sauce.
The OED states that the takeaway option was invented in a Dubin restaurant called Sunflower in 2006.
