Makarapa, Yoh And Other South African Words Added To Oxford Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary OED has added 10 words from South Africa in its March 2025 update , including makarapa, yoh, sharp-sharp and gatvol.
OED gets new word entries from around the world every quarter and this time around, South Africa was not left behind.
South African words added to Oxford dictionaryThe Mzansi entries include:
Yoh!OED traced this word back to 1855, describing it as an imitative utterance that is probably after the Afrikaans jo and the Xhosa yho or yo .
Yoh in South African English is a cry or exclamation used to express various emotions or reactions, such as surprise, wonder, admiration, shock or distress, it explains.
Gatv- b
Gatvol is another common word in South Africa used when a person has had enough or is extremely annoyed, unhappy or bored, especially with a state of affairs that has persisted for a long time.
The hell-inPerhaps not as famous as the first two, it denotes someone who is furious or fed up. It originates from the Afrikaans phrase die hel in , whose literal translation is in the hell.
TjoekieTraced back to 1977, tjoekie is a colloquial reference to prison or jail. It was introduced into South Africa by English-speaking immigrants from India, but it made its way into South African English via Afrikaans, Oxford English Dictionary explains.
It is related to an earlier slang term for word jail, chokey , a variant of chowki , which traces its roots back to Hindi, and ultimately, Sanskrit.
Seshweshwe and ShweshweSeshweshwe and Shweshwe refer to a type of printed cotton fabric, originally dyed with indigo but now available in various colours, featuring intricate, usually geometric, patterns and typically used for traditional Southern African clothes or accessories.