Faith Nyasuguta
Have you visited Kenya before? If not, a visit to Kenya is not complete without tasting the roadside delights of nyama choma – or grilled meat.
With this information, you can now chew it in the knowledge that the lexicographers in Oxford have put it in their world-famous English dictionary.
It’s among the 200 new and revised entries from East African English in the latest update of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).
In recent years, the OED is one of the most respected sources for the language.
Among other things you can munch on safe in the knowledge that they now have an official stamp are:
Chapo – a thin pancake of unleavened wholemeal bread cooked on a griddle
Chips mayai – in Tanzanian and Kenyan cooking – a thick omelette having fried potatoes mixed in with the eggs during cooking, served open rather than folded.
Katogo – the name of a typical Ugandan breakfast dish consisting of matoke (green bananas) boiled in a pot with various other ingredients.
And if you fancy just a little snack, you can now have a biting, which is a bite-sized piece of food.
In some other areas apart from food, sambaza meaning “to share or send something” is now in the OED, along with tarmacking which is “the action or process of walking the streets looking for work”. If you work with someone you can call it a collabo safe in the knowledge that it is correct English.
Also, if you fancy celebrating the inclusion of these words then you can shout “oyee!” – which according to the dictionary experts is a way to express “encouragement, incitement, or support: go on! go for it! long live! hurrah!”
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