Tokunbo, Danfo, Mama Put, Buka, Chop Chop, 24 Other Nigerian Words Included in Oxford English Dictionary

Ololade Adeyanju/

A number of Nigerian English words have made it into the Oxford English Dictionary for the first time.

An updated version of the widely used dictionary for January, 2020 contained 29 new Nigerian expressions.

The list featured several words used by popular Nigerian authors including Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Nobel laureate, Wole Soyinka.

World English Editor of the dictionary, Danica Salazar, noted the addition of the new words was to “give flavour of English-speaking rooted in a Nigerian experience”.

“By focusing on contemporary language in this update, and adding words and phrases that form part of the everyday vocabulary of today’s Nigerians, we hope to give a flavour of which, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie put it, is rooted in a Nigerian experience.

“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.

“By taking ownership of English and using it as their own medium of expression, Nigerians have made, and are continuing to make, a unique and distinctive contribution to English as a global language,” Salazar said in English-speaking release note.

Below are the new additions to the dictionary:

1. agric, adj. & n.
2. barbing salon, n.
3. buka, n.
4. bukateria, n.
5. chop, v./6
6. chop-chop, n./2
7. danfo, n.
8. to eat money, in eat, v.
9. ember months, n.
10. flag-off, n.
11. to flag off in flag, v.
12. gist, n./3
13. gist, v./2
14. guber, adj.
15. Kannywood, n.
16. K-leg, n.
17. mama put, n.
18. next tomorrow, n. & adv.
19. non-indigene, adj. & n.
20. okada, n.
21. to put to bed, in put, v.
22. qualitative, adj.
23. to rub minds (together) in rub, v./1
24. sef, adv.
25. send-forth, n.
26. severally, adv.
27. tokunbo, adj.
28. zone, v.
29. zoning, n.

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