Daggy Sheep, Chilly Bins, And Waka Jumpers: New & Revised Words From New Zealand Added To The Oxford English Dictionary

19 September 2024, Oxford – Oxford Languages announces its latest Oxford English Dictionary (OED) update.

Several of the New Zealand additions in this update are borrowings from Māori, including the oldest ones: tikanga, first recorded in 1848, and tikanga Māori, earliest documented in 1865. A tikanga is a custom, norm, value, or principle regulating the behaviour and practices of a particular community, while tikanga Māori is the body of such customs, norms, values, or principles regulating the behaviour and practices of the Māori people specifically. Similarly related to Māori culture is kapa haka (1986), originally denoting a traditional Māori performing arts group, but now also used to refer to traditional Māori performing arts, including dancing, singing, and rhythmic chanting.

Mahi (1976)is a word used in Māori contexts to mean work, activity, occupation, or employment. It is also occasionally used as a count noun to mean a job. Waka, a Māori loanword previously added to the OED which refers to a traditional Māori canoe, has more recently given rise to figurative expressions used colloquially in New Zealand politics. To waka jump (2002) is to move from one political party to another during a parliamentary term, while waka jumping (1999) is the name for this practice of party switching, and a waka jumper (1999) is a member of Parliament who engages in it.

In New Zealand, a chilly bin (1958) is a portable insulated container designed to keep food or drinks cool. The Tasman Sea is the ditch (1906), and one goes across the ditch when travelling from New Zealand to Australia and vice versa. The word lifestyle (1979) designates a smallholding or small farm operated primarily as a hobby or for supplemental income, so New Zealanders often talk aboutlifestyle blocks,lifestyle farms, orlifestyle properties. Anniversary Day (1868) is the anniversary of the foundation of one of the former provinces of New Zealand, now commemorated as a public holiday observed by each of the country’s administrative regions, usually on the Monday nearest to the actual anniversary date.

The New Zealand update also includes revised versions of existing entries. A few notable examples are boozeroo (1907), which means a bout of heavy drinking or an occasion where heavy drinking takes place, as well as several terms related to sheep and sheep-shearing now used chiefly in New Zealand: the noun dag (1724), a lock of sheep’s wool matted with dirt or excrement, especially from around its hindquarters; the verb dag (1702), to trim matted or dirty locks of wool from a sheep to reduce the risk of infestation or infection; the adjective daggy (1875), used to describe a sheep or wool that is clotted with dags or anything that is dirty, scruffy, or run-down; and the nouns fleeco (1881) and fleecy (1893), indicating a worker who keeps the shearing board clear by picking up the freshly-shorn fleeces and throwing them on to the wool table for sorting.

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