‘Zyzzyva’, a genus of tropical weevils (beetles) native to South America has dethroned ‘zythum’, an ancient Egyptian malt beer as the Oxford English Dictionary’s final entry in its latest updates on June 30.
The OED is updated four times a year, every March, June, September, and December.
According to the publisher, the material added to the dictionary includes revised versions of existing entries (which replace the older versions), and new words and senses both within the alphabetical sequence of revised entries and also across the whole A to Z range.
More than 600 new words, phrases, and senses have been added to OED this quarter, including bug chaser (person who studies or collects insects or other bugs; an entomologist. Often somewhat depreciative), chantoosie (A female singer of popular songs) gin daisy a [cocktail made with gin, lemon juice, and (usually) grenadine], and widdly [Of music or its performance (esp. the playing of an electric guitar): showy, over-elaborate.]
Among variety of new words to be added, a stand-out is ‘hygge,” a Danish term described as ‘a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being’.
It includes a second entry for ‘woke’ which till now was listed as a verb and a past tense of ‘wake’. In the new entry as an adjective, it refers to “Alert to injustice in society, especially racism.” OED’s examples for the use of the word of the sentences are, ‘We need to stay angry, and stay woke; ‘Does being woke mean I have to agree with what all other woke folks say should be done about issues in the black community?’
Indian food essentials chana dal (chickpeas) also found entry in the latest update. The other prominent new entries include a batch of tennis-related words including playing terms like ‘forced error’ as well as slang such as "bagel" - which refers to a score in a set of six games to love, due to the similarity of the numeral 0 to the shape of a bagel, PTI reported.
The latest OED update also includes a new related sense of the verb ‘academise’, to convert a school into such an academy, it said.
Here is a list of words which were given “New Sense”
in the latest OED update. Readers can search the meanings on their free time.
For full list and the meaning of the new words check out http://public.oed.com/the-oed-today/recent-updates-to-the-oed/
(Morung Express Feature)