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Oxford English Dictionary Adds New Words: Cocktease, Jedi and Others

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is the gold standard among anyone who likes words and is known by academic types and regular people alike as the world's most prestigious and reliable dictionary. However, even the OED is subject to changing with the fast-moving times — even if it means “cocktease” is now officially, a real word.

From Cocktease to Jedi

Some might think cocktease is a bit vulgar for the British sensibilities behind the OED — but you'd be wrong. The nation that brought you biting comedy from the Monty Python troupe to Blackadder is more than proud to present cocktease. Not sure what that means, officially? According to OED, it’s “An individual, usually a girl, who engages (or is thought to be partaking) in cockteasing.”

Also new to the OED... chirpse. Apparently, younger Millennials and members of Gen Z’s have contributed a bunch of new words – to clarify, “chirpse” refers to assertive flirting, a mixture of flirt and chirp. But it wasn't only new terms that made the cut, the old flirty classic 'a little sumpin’ sumpin’' also gained official status.

Sci-fi nerds are also in for quite a treat, too. As it turns out, “Jedi” – among other ‘Star Wars’ terms like lightsabre – is now officially a word according to the OED, meaning that you can deploy the word against your unwitting grandmother during your next game of Scrabble. Everybody knows that those pesky J's can be hard as f*** to get rid of, despite the 8-point value.

Not to be outdone by rad, tubular and bodacious, “chillax” is now also officially a word. It's unclear, as yet, whether or not “Netflix and Chillax” will eventually replace the more mundane “Netflix and Chill.” There's just something a little too turn-of-the-millennium about chillax, conjuring up images of the Budweiser frogs, Wazzup — forgot about that, didn't you — and “Dude, you got a Dell!” (Some things are better left in the past.)

Realness Is In

In a world of appearances, fast content, and faster entertainment, an obsession with authenticity and “realness” has emerged — a trend that is strongly reflected in some other words being added to the lexicon. “Fakie” refers to a false item, be it a breast, butt, nails, or lashes, and “fakeness” stands in as an overall reference to insincerity.

More specifically, wannabe Jamaicans are up on the block. “Jafaican” refers to a non-Jamaican who adopts the pose of Jamaican culture, be it clothing, accent, musical taste, or culinary pursuits.

Fans of one of President Donald Trump's iconic phrases —“fake news”— will be happy to know that the term has been immortalized in the Oxford English Dictionary, in keeping with the aforementioned fixation with exposing falsehoods or impersonations.

With each passing year, it seems that the words added to the OED become less formal and more fluid. What does this signal to the rest of us, and what does it say about our current culture?

Questions for an essay, perhaps. The dictionary is just there to define the words, with deeper meaning being left to the poets — poets who can somehow make cocktease and chillax into something more.

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Christina Majaski, Khareem Sudlow