Gigil: word that describes “graceful aggression” among the new voices to Oxford English Dictionary | Reference books and languages

Have you ever kept such an incredibly soft and adorable puppy that you didn’t know how to transmit the strong need to squeeze your head without looking like a maniac? Well, now there is a word for this: Gigil.

Gigil (pronounced Ghee-Gill) is one of the new words that have arrived at Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

Gigil, extracted from the language of the tagalog of the Philippines, refers to what psychologists describe as a graceful aggression: “(a) feel so intense as to give us the unpresentable impulse of closing their hands closely, scratching the teeth and pinching or squeezing the fact that we find it so adorable”.

Gigil can be deployed as a noun that indicates the sensation or an adjective for having felt the feeling, such as: “That puppy is making me Gigil”.

With 600,000 words, the Oed is one of the most complete dictionaries in the English language world.

His editors consider thousands of suggestions for new words every year that come from each year and from a variety of sources, including the appeals of research and crowdsourcing of the OED.

Alamak, a colloquial cry used to express surprise or indignation in Singapore and Malaysia, also made the list.

In his latest update, the Oed said: “It would not be useful for the English speakers to have a specific word for the light of the sun that breaks through the leaves … or a word for the action of sitting out enjoying a beer?” The Norwegians have a word, Fill, to have a beer (GDP) outside (outside). And the Japanese word “Komorebi” (sunlight through light) describes the light of the sun that is removed through the leaves.

People who speak English alongside other languages ​​fill the lexical gaps “borrowing the word that cannot be translated from another language”. When they do it quite often, the word borrowed “becomes part of their vocabulary,” said Oed.

Most of the words added to the Oed of Singapore and Malaysia are names of dishes, including Kaya toast – jam based on coconut milk, eggs, sugar and pandan leaves scattered on toasted bread; Head curry fish – a Chinese and south of India dish; And steam boat: a thin sliced ​​meat and a vegetable broth.

“All this food speech could inspire one to get a takeaway or tapau,” said Oed. Tapau is another new word originating from Chinese languages, which means “packing or concluding, the food to take away”.

Other recently added Philippines include Videoke, the national version of Karaoke, which includes the score, and Salakot, a farmer hat.

Words and phrases from South Africa and Ireland were part of the update.