‘Bliksem’, ‘broekie’, ‘entjie’ and ‘plakkie’ are amongst a few words with SA origins that have been added to the world’s most popular dictionary!
South Africa (24 March 2026) – The Oxford English Dictionary just added a fresh batch of South African words to its hallowed pages. Fourteen in total!
A word earns its place by showing up consistently, across a variety of sources, over a reasonable stretch of time. When South African words make the cut, it means the world is paying attention to how we actually speak.
Ja. ‘Plakkie’, ‘broekie’, ‘entjie’, ‘blesser’ and ‘chakalaka’ will join existing favourites including ‘howzit’, ‘gatvol’, ‘braai’, ‘lekker’ ‘yoh’, ‘kif’, ‘yebo’ and ‘ubuntu’ – amongst a surprisingly long list of other words of South African origin already in the Oxford dictionary…
This update leans heavily into Afrikaans and Zulu borrowings, which makes sense given how deeply both languages are woven into the way South Africans communicate every day.
Take ‘bliksem’. In Afrikaans, it technically means lightning – but in South African English, we all know that’s the least common of the word’s many uses…It can be a noun, a verb, an adjective, or an interjection, and it covers everything from surprise to what somebody says delivering a klap to somebody’s kop…
The OED has traced it in English use all the way back to 1953!
“It is earliest seen in English as a colloquial noun (1953) referring to a despicable or contemptible person, that is also used as a general term of abuse, especially for a man or boy. It is also employed as an interjection (1963) expressing a wide range of emotions, from anger and disgust to frustration and surprise. As an adjective (1970), it means damned, cursed, blasted; as a verb (1963), it means to assault a person or to strike something or someone with repeated blows.”
Then there’s ‘bosberaad’ (1988) – a conference or meeting held at a remote or rural venue to encourage collaborative or innovative discussion. Plakkies can be any of various succulent plants of the family Crassulaceae native to southern Africa (1917), or they can be a pair of flip-flops (1970).
Also ‘papgeld’ (1996), which literally means “money for porridge” but refers to child maintenance payments. Plus ‘entjie’ (1950) for a cigarette butt. And ‘broekies’ (1961), because the world must officially know what we call our underpants.
From Zulu, ‘isicholo’ – the beautiful, wide-brimmed ceremonial hat worn by married Zulu women – gets its long-overdue entry, first recorded in English in 1929. And ‘izinyoka’ (2004), the collective term for people who steal electricity by tapping into cables – a word born entirely from a very modern South African reality. In Zulu, ‘nyoka’ means snake, and izin- is the plural prefix used for animals.
Chakalaka is in there too! Its exact origin is a little murky, but it may be linked to the Xhosa word for sharing food. Either way, it’s officially a word the world should know. We love it with pap.
The full list includes ‘blesser’, ‘degazette’, and ‘representivity’ too, rounding out fourteen new entries that reflect the full, colourful reality of South African English.
Sources: Oxford University Press.
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