PETALING JAYA: The principal historical dictionary of the English language, Oxford English Dictionary (OED), has recently updated 12 words from Malaysia and Singapore which it deemed “untranslatable” in its latest update.
In its website, it acknowledged that these words lack a direct translation but are widely used by English speakers to bridge linguistic gaps.
“Sometimes, they do this with enough frequency that the borrowed word eventually becomes part of the vocabulary of their variety of English – a few examples of such loan words are featured in this quarter’s OED update,” the website read.
Among notable terms or Malay word added to the OED included “alamak”, which is defined as expressing surprise, shock, dismay, or outrage.
Additionally, the popularly used Cantonese word or phrase “tapau” which describes the act of taking away or packing up food, has also been included.
Notably, several popular Malaysian food items were also included in its updated list including ketupat, nasi lemak, fish head curry, half-boiled egg, kaya, kaya toast, otak-otak and steamboat among others.
In the website, it also included mat rempit (2004) which is defined is a (typically young) man who participates in illegal motorcycle street racing and often performs dangerous stunts.
Additionally, the Malaysian English term “terror” was also included in the list which means ‘terrible’ or ‘awful’, but it can also be a general term of approval meaning ‘admirable, excellent’.
“Terror is frequently preceded by wah and followed by lah, as in this approving 2020 social media post quoted in the OED entry: ‘Wah! So terror lah.’”
