This month’s update to Oxford English Dictionary — which bills itself as the definitive record of the English language — includes 15 Filipino words that include references to food and family members, as well as some terms that are so uniquely Filipino, they’ve always been hard to explain in English.
Culinary dishes that have made it to the OED are balut, kare-kare, leche flan, lechon, lechon asado, pancit and puto.
The Malay-originated martial arts form, arnis, is also included, as are terms for some Filipino family members such as lola, lolo, tita and tito. The honorary member of many Filipino households, yaya, is also in the list.
Two uniquely Filipino terms in the Sep 2016 update are tabo (plastic dipper) and bayanihan (community spirit).
The biggest surprise, however, has nothing to do with Filipino vocabulary. The update contains four terms referring to unorthodox sexual intercourse which you can check here (hint: they all start with the letter b).
Reader Interactions