Afrikaans words now also acceptable English!

by | Jan 9, 2019 | Archive, English homepage, General information

A few more Afrikaans words are now officially internationally recognised English! This is thanks to the Oxford English Dictionary’s recent inclusion of 24 South African words and concepts. ‘Dwaal’, ‘deurmekaar’, ‘skedonk’, ‘voetstoots’ and ‘eina’ from Afrikaaans as well as ‘amakhosi’ and ‘ingcibi’ from Nguni languages have been included. So too ‘kasi’, which originates from the Afrikaans ‘lokasie’ (‘location’). ‘Kif’ (‘kief’) that travelled from the Arabic ‘kaif’ (pleasure) via South Africa to mean ‘cool’ is also to be seen in the mother of all English dictionaries. For more on this and the full list of words, see www.oed.com’s arcicle here.