Oxford Dictionary adds 11 Filipino words, including 'gigil'

The Oxford English Dictionary added around 600 new words and phrases in its March 2025 update, which included 11 Filipino words, such as “gigil,” “CR,” “lumpia,” and “load.”

In the update posted on its website, Oxford Dictionary noted “untranslatable words,” which are “words and phrases in one language that cannot be translated into another.”

“Often, when we talk about untranslatable words, what we are actually talking about are words that have been lexicalized in one language but not in others, which is what makes them particularly intriguing,” it continued.

One of the Filipino words added was “gigil” that according to Oxford Dictionary is originally Tagalog, but is now also used in Philippine English.

The dictionary described “gigil” as “a feeling we get when we see someone or something cute, a feeling so intense that it gives us the irresistible urge to tightly clench our hands, grit our teeth, and pinch or squeeze whomever or whatever it is we find so adorable, whether it be a chubby-cheeked baby or a fluffy little kitten.”

The iconic “salakot” was also included and is defined as “a type of lightweight Filipino hat that is typically domed or conical in shape, with a wide brim, and often has a spiked or ornamental finial at the tip of the crown.”

The dictionary added “kababayan,” which means two things-the “small, sweet, typically yellow cake similar to a muffin” and the word which Filipinos use to “call their fellow Filipinos, or people who come from the same Philippine region or town as them.”

The star of any Filipino party, the “lumpia,” is “the name of any of various types of East and Southeast Asian spring rolls, typically consisting of a very thin pancake filled with minced meat, seafood, or vegetables, rolled into a cylinder, sometimes deep-fried, and served with a dipping sauce.”

Filipinos love “videoke” and Oxford Dictionary defined the word as the “Filipino version of karaoke.”

“Sando,” on the other hand, refers to “a sleeveless garment worn under or instead of a shirt.”

The dictionary also added more words that are “not loan words, but idiosyncratic uses of existing English words.”

Such are “load,” which is “credit purchased for a pay-as-you-go mobile phone,” the word “CR” which is short for comfort room or toilet, and “terror,” which refers to a “teacher who is strict, harsh, or demanding.”

editionThe last Filipino word added by Oxford Dictionary was “Thomasite,” which is an “American teacher in the Philippines during the period of American occupation from 1899 to 1946.”