KUALA LUMPUR: Don't play play, our England now champion already.
Distinctly Malaysian and Singaporean slang words such as 'lepak', 'teh tarik' and even 'wah', are now recognised by the Oxford English Dictionary.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in its March 2016 update, has included several words borrowed from Chinese and Malay languages which are used mainly by Malaysians and Singaporeans, according to a report by Singapore's Straits Times today.
These include phrases such as “lepaking” (to loiter around), “blur” (roughly used to define a person slow in understanding something), “sabo” (to prank, to harm someone or something, trick), and “shiok” (great, cool, delicious, superb).
The Chinese phrase “Ang Moh” to define a Caucasian person, also made it into OED update. In addition, “Wet market”, “Char Siu” (a roast pork dish), “Chilli Crab” (a sweet and spicy crab dish) were also listed in the update.
Several other words commonly used in the republic were also included such as “sotong” (stereotypically used to define stupid, clumsy, or ignorant person) and “HDB” (Housing and Development Board) used to roughly define public housing estates built and managed by the Singapore government.
A total of 19 words were added into the list. Here are the words:
• ang moh
• blur
• char siu
• chilli crab
• Chinese helicopter
• hawker centre
• HDB
• killer litter
• lepak, (noun)
• lepak, (verb)
• lepaking
• shiok
• sabo, (noun)
• sabo, (verb)
• sabo king
• sotong
• teh tarik
• wah
• wet market