If twerk and selfie are now seen as everyday words, it should come as no surprise that gees, mahala, flippen and e-toll are part of the latest Oxford South African dictionary to hit bookstore shelves.
The dictionary is a practical, comprehensive English dictionary suitable for senior secondary learners, students at universities, and for adults as home or office reference. It includes many more usage notes to help students avoid common mistakes.
Not only is the dictionary completely up-to-date in both world English (e.g. Bollywood, unfriend, cosplay, textspeak, witchetty grub) and South African English, it incorporates key CAPS curriculum terms too (e.g. aquaculture, covalent bond).
“Language evolves on a daily basis, even more so in a multicultural country such as South Africa. In order to track these changes Oxford University Press Southern Africa has published a new edition of its pocket dictionary, which, in addition to all the relevant general English vocabulary, includes some new, uniquely South African words,” said Steve Cilliers, MD of Oxford University Press Southern Africa
“Just how does language change? People come up with completely new terms, we borrow words from other languages, words are formed from combinations of existing words or we use new senses of existing words,” added Cilliers.
The Oxford South African Pocket Dictionary 4e also helps to improve speaking, writing and reading skills with guidance at word entry level and invaluable supplementary pages in the middle of the dictionary.
Sports loan words from other indigenous languages include izinyoka, loskop, morabaraba and zama zama.
There are also words that only have meaning within a South African culture e.g. crown birthday, lolly lounge, tenderpreneur, whoonga and zef.
If you are feeling a little less loquacious these days due to a lack of vocab, it may be time to update your dictionary.
- gees /kheers/ n. S. Afr. informal spirit or energy: The gees at the rally was just fantastic.– origin: Afrikaans.
- mahala /mah-hah-lah/ adv. & adj. S. Afr. informal free of charge.
– origin: from isiXhosa mahala, isiZulu mahhala. - flippenadj. & adv. S. Afr. informal used to emphasize something: That wave was flippen huge!
- e-toll (also etoll) n. 1 the electronic collection of toll fees for road use. 2 (e-tolls) the system of collecting toll fees automatically using electronic tags in vehicles, and equipment that recognizes these tags. 3 the charge for using this system: E-tolls are collected weekly.
Tenderpreneur, mahala and izinyoka added to the Oxford SA Dictionary
If twerk and selfie are now seen as everyday words, it should come as no surprise that gees, mahala, flippen and e-toll are part of the latest Oxford South African dictionary to hit bookstore shelves.
The dictionary is a practical, comprehensive English dictionary suitable for senior secondary learners, students at universities, and for adults as home or office reference. It includes many more usage notes to help students avoid common mistakes.
Not only is the dictionary completely up-to-date in both world English (e.g. Bollywood, unfriend, cosplay, textspeak, witchetty grub) and South African English, it incorporates key CAPS curriculum terms too (e.g. aquaculture, covalent bond).
“Language evolves on a daily basis, even more so in a multicultural country such as South Africa. In order to track these changes Oxford University Press Southern Africa has published a new edition of its pocket dictionary, which, in addition to all the relevant general English vocabulary, includes some new, uniquely South African words,” said Steve Cilliers, MD of Oxford University Press Southern Africa
“Just how does language change? People come up with completely new terms, we borrow words from other languages, words are formed from combinations of existing words or we use new senses of existing words,” added Cilliers.
The Oxford South African Pocket Dictionary 4e also helps to improve speaking, writing and reading skills with guidance at word entry level and invaluable supplementary pages in the middle of the dictionary.
Sports loan words from other indigenous languages include izinyoka, loskop, morabaraba and zama zama.
There are also words that only have meaning within a South African culture e.g. crown birthday, lolly lounge, tenderpreneur, whoonga and zef.
If you are feeling a little less loquacious these days due to a lack of vocab, it may be time to update your dictionary.
– origin: from isiXhosa mahala, isiZulu mahhala.
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