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'Spice bag' added to Oxford English Dictionary

Rebekah Wilson
BBC News NI
BBC A plate of chips with chilli spices, shredded fried chicken, green and red peppers and onionsBBC
A spice bag is an Irish chinese takeaway staple, often accompanied with curry sauce

Words including "class" and "spice bag" have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in its latest update.

A number of new words including eight Hiberno-English/Irish-English words have been added to mark popular words and phrases.

The OED said it wanted to incorporate "loan words" - words that would be coined as "untranslatable" but are used with enough frequency by people who speak English alongside other languages that they have become part of "the vocabulary of their variety of English".

The new additions for the first quarter of 2025 are from Ireland, southeast Asia and South Africa.

What Irish-English words are included?

The eight Irish-English words included are:

  • Ludraman - from the Irish liúdramán or lúdramán, a colloquial and derogatory term for lazy or unproductive, featured in James Joyce's Ulysses where it was spelt loodheramaun. There are 11 different spellings of this word recorded in the OED.
  • Blaa - the name of a soft white bread roll dusted with flour, regular associated with Waterford. It is said that the bread roll was introduced to the city in the 17th century by Huguenot immigrants.
  • Class - a general term of approval which, as the OED states, was used regularly by the character Erin in the popular sitcom Derry Girls, with the script quoted in the dictionary's entry. It is also used in northern English.
  • Mineral - a carbonated soft drink, still currently used in Irish English and West African English. The OED states that the earliest use was recorded in 1893.
  • Debs - short for debs' ball which is a formal social event held for students in their final year of school. The OED notes it is a rite of passage for Irish teenagers.
  • To act the maggot - to behave foolishly. First recorded by the OED in 1946.
  • Morto - to be extremely embarrassed. The OED said its earliest recording of this dates to 1991.
  • Spice bag - a well known Irish takeaway option, consisting of chips, shredded fried chicken, fried onions, red and green peppers, chilli peppers and occasionally jalapeño peppers, tossed in a bag with spices and commonly served with curry sauce. The OED states that the takeaway option was invented in a Dubin restaurant called Sunflower in 2006.

A list of all words added from across the world can be found on the OED website.