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Ye Olde English Gets DAEBAK!
The OED adds 26 words straight outta Korean
The Oxford English Dictionary, that self-billed “definitive record of the English language,” added 26 Korean words to its pages today, reflecting the global phenom that’s touched everything from the Oscars (Parasite, 2021’s Best Picture, etc.) to the Grammys (BTS got a nom for 2020’s “Dynamite”) to a Tony (for Jenna Ushkowitz Stanley’s 2018 turn as producer for the Broadway musical Once on This Island) to yes, an Emmy if we dig back to 2010’s “Mom and The Red Bean Cake” (directed by Jong-Hyun Lee’s). That phenom is of course all things K, and now to that game-changing stratosphere we must add Korean linguist Jieun Kiaer, who helped the OED usher in this era.
Looking over the list, as an outsider looking in, we seem terribly obssessed with food, romance, and all things K. If you’d like to be the first to get these in a crossword, for your indexing pleasure, here are the words that today joined the oldest entry of the bunch, 2016’s K-pop.
New pop culture entries:
- K-drama, n. — A television series in the Korean language and produced in South Korea.
- hallyu, n. — The increase in international interest in South Korea and its popular culture, represented by the global success of South Korean music, film, TV…
