IRELAND’S unique contribution to the English language has been recognised once again, after ‘spice bag’, ‘ludraman’ and ‘class’ were added into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) in its latest update.
The new additions came as part of the OED’s March update, which sought to emphasise how loan words from other languages – with specific reference to southeast Asia, South Africa and Ireland – enriched the English language and contributed to its international texture,
The English language is replete with words modified or borrowed from the original Irish. Ludraman, for example, is thought to stem from the Irish ‘liúdramán’ or ‘lúdramán’, meaning “a lazy, unproductive, or stupid person (especially a man)”.
The OED entry also informs us that the earliest evidence of its use in English comes from James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’, first published by Shakespeare and Company in 1922.
Many English speakers who identify with the Hiberno-English idiom – that is, the form of English dialect most often associated with Ireland – will be familiar with the updated usage of the word ‘class’ to denote “a general term of approval: excellent, fantastic, great”.
One of the examples the OED cites for this form of usage comes from Erin’s character in the hit Channel 4 sitcom ‘Derry Girls’. In a scene where Erin responds to something said by Sister Michael, she uses the word in its updated format.
“[Sister Michael] Welcome to Derry.”
“[Erin] It's class, isn't it?”
Perhaps the term which has drawn the most attention from this year’s cache of Hiberno-English terminology is ‘Spice bag’, a term which the dictionary describes as: “A takeaway meal usually sold from either Chinese food outlets or fish and chip shops.”
Surprisingly, the OED attributes the invention – and therefore the first usage of the term ‘spice bag’ in its current context – to a Chinese takeaway in Dublin called the Sunflower. It’s thought that the term dates from around 2006.
