The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added several Nigerian-originated words, including words “mammy market,” “nyash,” and “amala,” to its glossary in its December 2025 update.
The update, released on the OED website on Wednesday, features more than 500 new words, phrases, and verb forms, reflecting the growing global influence of Nigeria’s language, culture, and cuisine.
Other Nigerian-originated words newly included are “moi moi,” “abeg,” “biko,” and “Ghana Must Go.” Internet slang such as “DM,” “brainfart,” and “chug” also made the update.
In addition, the dictionary revised over 1,000 existing entries, while editors explored the histories of words including “troll,” “coffee,” and “snooker.”
The OED said the update draws from different varieties of English worldwide, including West African English, Maltese English, Japanese English, and South Korean English, noting their increasing global influence.
Among the additions is “Afrobeats,” defined as “a style of popular music incorporating elements of West African music and of jazz, soul, and funk.”
The dictionary defines “abeg” as “an interjection used to express contextually a range of emotions, such as surprise, exasperation, and disbelief.”
“Biko,” originally from the Igbo language, is described as “an adverb and interjection used in polite request or agreement, or to add polite emphasis or urgency: ‘please’.”
“Nyash” is defined as “a person’s (especially a woman’s) buttocks; the bottom, the backside.”
The term “Ghana Must Go” is recognized as “a large, zippered bag made of durable plastic with a colourful check pattern,” tracing its origin to the 1983 mass expulsion of undocumented Ghanaian migrants from Nigeria.
“Mammy market” is described as “a market typically run by women, originally found in military barracks but later also in youth service camps and educational institutions.”
In the category of cuisine, the OED included “amala,” defined as “a kind of dough made of yam, cassava, or unripe plantain flour, typically formed into a ball and served as an accompaniment to other dishes,” and “moi moi,” a dish originating among the Yoruba people, “consisting of beans ground into a smooth paste, mixed with peppers, onions, dried…”
In January 2025, the Oxford English Dictionary had earlier expanded its lexicon with 20 Nigerian words and expressions, including “japa,” “agbero,” “eba,” “419,” and “abi,” further underscoring the growing global impact of Nigerian English, Pidgin, and street slang.
