Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Adds US Hispanic Words in Latest Update

From Oxford Languages:

English and Spanish are two of the world’s most widely spoken languages, with a combined total of nearly two billion speakers across the globe. They are also languages with a long history of contact and mutual influence; this is evident in the large number of words that they have borrowed from one another over the centuries.

The OED already records more than 2,000 words of Spanish origin, with the earliest examples dating as far back as the 14^th century. In this update, the OED has added to that total, drawing on words and phrases shared by Hispanic Americans as well as those specific to the three largest Hispanic groups in the US: Mexican Americans, Cuban Americans, and Puerto Rican Americans.

Nowhere is the lexical exchange between English and Spanish more apparent than in the United States, a majority English-speaking country where over 43 million people aged five or older speak Spanish at home. American Spanish is the primary source of English Hispanicisms. Hispanic Americans are now the largest minority ethnic group in the US, and many of them embrace Spanish as an expression of their identity and choose to retain its use alongside English, alternating between the two. They also use Spanglish, an informal hybrid of Spanish and English used in bilingual contexts, characterized by the blending of elements from both. This provides even more fertile ground for borrowing between the two languages.

If you find that lexical background surprising and fascinating, you may find some of the Spanish-origin interjections, used to communicate a wide range of emotions and performing various discourse functions, now added to the OED interesting too. They include Dios mio (‘oh my God!’) orale (‘wow!’, ‘gosh!’, or ‘OK’, ‘yes’, ‘all right’, or ‘go on!’, ‘go for it!’), por favor (‘please’), and que pasa (‘what’s up?’).

Since the early 20^th century, food has supplied a steady stream of Spanish borrowings into English as Latin American ingredients became part of the food culture of North America and the rest of the English-speaking world. More of these food terms have now entered the OED, including savoury dishes such as elote(a grilled or boiled corn on the cob, served on a stick with various toppings, and sold as a snack by street vendors) and frijoles negros (black beans cooked with onions, garlic, salt, or other spices). Sweet dishes include bizcochito(a crisp biscuit usually flavoured with cinnamon and anise and cut into the shape of a flower, star, cross, or circle, and typically served at celebrations or at Christmas), torrija(a slice of bread soaked in seasoned beaten egg or wine and fried until brown), and tres leches (‘three milks’ – a sponge cake soaked in a mixture of whole, evaporated, and condensed milk).

Mexican Americans, or Chicanos, form the largest population of Hispanic origin in the US, accounting for more than half of the Hispanic population in the country. Among the Mexican food terms in this batch of new words are barbacoa(beef, lamb, or other meat that has been slowly cooked with seasonings, typically served shredded as a filling in tacos or burritos) and birria(goat, beef, lamb, or other meat marinated in a mixture of vinegar, chilli, and other seasonings, slow-cooked in a spiced broth, served as a soup or stew or as a taco filling). Cotijais a white, salty, semi-hard Mexican cheese made from cow’s milk, and frijoles refritosare beans (traditionally pinto beans) cooked by boiling and then mashed and fried to make a thick paste. Tortahas also been added: a sandwich consisting of a bread roll split lengthwise and filled with a variety of ingredients, typically including grilled meat, avocado, refried beans, chilli peppers, tomatoes, and onions.

Mexican sport also features in this update. Charreada and charrería are words referring to a public exhibition or competition demonstrating equestrian skills historically used in Mexican haciendas and featuring riders wearing traditional (often ornately decorated) dress, including a sombrero and boots; a pursuit now considered the national sport of Mexico. Mexican wrestling, also known as lucha libre, is a form of professional wrestling originating in Mexico, in which competitors wear distinctive form-fitting masks and use acrobatic techniques.

Chilango is a slang term for a native or inhabitant of Mexico City. Ending with the Spanish pejorative suffix –ango, the word was originally used with derogatory and offensive intent but has increasingly been used as a neutral or positive term, and as a self-designation. It is now also used to refer to Spanish as spoken or written in Mexico City, especially by its natives or inhabitants. Another slang term that has undergone a similar change in meaning and usage is güey. Originally a derogatory word for a foolish or stupid person, it later began to be used in a more neutral or positive way to refer generally to a person, especially a man. It is now also a distinctively Mexican form of address.

The Day of the Deador Día de los Muertosis a holiday honouring the dead observed by Mexicans and Mexican Americans on All Souls’ Day, 2 November, and on the surrounding days, including All Saints’ Day, 1 November. An important part of this celebration is the sugar skull, also known as calavera, a decorative representation of a human skull or skeleton, originally crafted from sugar but now also sometimes from clay. Originally intended to be eaten and often given to children as a gift for Dia de los Muertos, sugar skulls are now frequently designed primarily as decorative items, and sometimes left as offerings on altars and tombs.

Puerto Ricans comprise the second-largest Hispanic group in the US. They are sometimes referred to as Boricua, a noun and adjective indicating a person born or living in Puerto Rico or one of Puerto Rican descent. Boricua was a Spanish name for Puerto Rico, an alteration of Borinquén or Boriquén, an early name for the island which ultimately derives from a Taino name.

A Puerto Rican dish that became popular in New York City is cuchifritos, deep-fried pieces of pork (or sometimes another meat), and vegetables such as potatoes or plantains, often sold by street vendors and eaten as a snack.

In Puerto Rican folklore, the vejiganteis an evil character represented in carnival celebrations by people wearing brightly coloured and richly decorated horned masks and costumes with bat-like wings, and carrying rattles traditionally made from dried cow bladders filled with seeds or beans, which are sometimes used to strike passers-by. The word comes from the Puerto Rican Spanish vejigante, a blend of vejiga ‘bladder’ and gigante ‘giant’.

Cuban Americans are the third largest Hispanic community in the US. Cubano is a noun and an adjective that can be applied to a man or boy born or living in Cuba or of Cuban descent, or to any person of Cuban descent. Cubanois also the name of a Cuban American sandwich consisting of a long crusty roll with various fillings (typically a combination of ham, roast pork, cheese, pickles, and mustard), especially one that has been pressed and toasted. Another popular Cuban sandwich is frita, literally meaning ‘fried’ in Spanish, a hamburger consisting of a beef and pork patty topped with shoestring potatoes and served in traditional Cuban white bread.

Cuban music is represented in this update by three new additions. Nueva trova is a genre of popular music that developed in Cuba following the Cuban revolution of 1953 to 1959, combining elements of traditional Cuban folk music with lyrics expressing social or political protest. Timba is an instrument used in Latin American music, a type of upright, single-headed drum with a long, conical body, played by striking with the fingers and palms. In a later sense, it is also a style of dance music originating in Cuba, combining elements of Cuban son, Afro-Cuban folk music, and Latin American salsa, rumba, and mambo with influences from African American funk, R&B, and hip-hop, and having a complex, propulsive, and heavily syncopated rhythm. Finally, descarga is a word used by Cuban musicians to signify a jam session, especially one to improvise son montuno.

Saying that someone is eating shitmay sound quite harsh, as it is generally understood to mean that the person in question is being degraded or humiliated in some way. However, among Cuban Americans, this slang phrase is not so coarse—it simply means that someone is being idle or wasting time, a calque or loan translation of the Spanish phrase comer mierda.

Learn More

The words and phrases highlighted here are just a selection of the new entries from US Hispanic English included in this quarterly update. For more detail, and the full list of US Hispanic English words added, see these release notes.

To read about the broader update, check out these articles on boots and bootlegging and new words, and other articles here.

Find out about the OED’s new additions from the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore, South Africa, and Ireland in these World English release notes, and for more information on World Englishes more generally, visit the OED World English Hub.

See Also: Bed, Bomb, and Beyond: the OED March 2025 Update 

Filed under: Companies (Publishers/Vendors), News