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Oxford Is Creating an 'African American Dictionary,' and the First 10 Words Were Just Announced
thefederalistpapers.org ^ | June 3, 2023 | Richard Moorhead

Posted on 06/03/2023 2:02:04 PM PDT by lowbridge

One of the world’s major printers of English-language dictionaries is preparing a volume for language associated with African Americans.

The Oxford Dictionary of African American English aims to define 1,000 terms by March 2025 — potentially educating a broader audience on the meaning of English terms associated with the ethnic group.

Oxford University Press provided 10 words to The New York Times in a preview of the project.

Harvard University academic Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been appointed as editor-in-chief of the project.

The dictionary includes some words that could be referred to as slang, others that reference events in black history, and other terms that allude to music and expression in black culture.

Americans of all races might recognize some of the terms from rap music.

“Grill” is defined as “a removable or permanent dental overlay, typically made of silver, gold or another metal and often inset with gemstones, which is worn as jewelry.”

“Bussin” is defined as an adjective meaning “tasty or delicious” or alternatively “busy, crowded or lively.”

Other words appear more antiquated, referencing events that precede the abolition of slavery in the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.

The term “cakewalk,” used to describe a easy task, is defined as one with its origins from slavery.

“A contest in which black people would perform a stylized walk in pairs, typically judged by a plantation owner,” the term is defined.

(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalistpapers.org ...


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Chit/Chat; Reference; Society
KEYWORDS: dictionary
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To: lowbridge

“Aight”


61 posted on 06/03/2023 5:30:29 PM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: dfwgator

Truth!


62 posted on 06/03/2023 5:47:46 PM PDT by Enten (I don't have islamophobia...I do have islamonausea)
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To: lowbridge
This has got to be a lie!
The term “cakewalk,” used to describe a easy task, is defined as one with its origins from slavery.

“A contest in which black people would perform a stylized walk in pairs, typically judged by a plantation owner,” the term is defined.

Even the Brits knew what a cake walk was near a hundred years ago.
Tickets are sold to participants, and a path of numbered squares is laid out on a rug, with one square per ticket sold. The participants walk around the path in time to music, which plays for a duration and then stops. A number is drawn at random and called out, and the person standing on that number wins a cake as a prize (hence the name).

During the 1930s, the English poet John Betjeman described St Giles' Fair in Oxford as follows:

It is about the biggest fair in England. The whole of St Giles' … is thick with freak shows, roundabouts, cake-walks, the whip, and the witching waves.[2]

We had cakewalks in carnivals at our elementary school.   All of the mothers would bake cakes and bring them for prizes at the cake-walk.
63 posted on 06/03/2023 5:52:34 PM PDT by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
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To: lowbridge
The term “cakewalk,” used to describe a easy task, is defined as one with its origins from slavery.

Fortheloveofalgore.

No.

64 posted on 06/03/2023 5:58:20 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (Follow the money. Even if it leads you to someplace horrible it will still lead you to the truth.)
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To: lowbridge

They should not forget to include words such as BABY-MAMMA as such words illustrate the contribution of blacks to current American culture.


65 posted on 06/03/2023 6:03:48 PM PDT by House Atreides (I’m now ULTRA-MAGA. -PRO-MAX’)
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To: lowbridge

*


66 posted on 06/03/2023 6:08:17 PM PDT by windsorknot
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To: lowbridge

Is this necessary? Probably not. All this stuff is on the internet.

Is it going to make money? Nope.

Will Oxford hire a couple of folk to add thirty or forty words a year lifted from Rap music and the latest Bravo reality shows. Yup.

Mostly these things are virtue signaling that is nothing more than a circle jerk for idiots.


67 posted on 06/03/2023 6:13:51 PM PDT by Vermont Lt
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To: lowbridge

Sounds like Oxford is gettin’ up in somebody’s grill ...


68 posted on 06/03/2023 6:22:59 PM PDT by x
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To: DownInFlames

My favs:

Ho and Bottom B%$#@.

I dare them to put those in the “dictionary”.


69 posted on 06/03/2023 6:27:40 PM PDT by cgbg (Claiming that laws and regs that limit “hate speech” stop freedom of speech is “hate speech”.)
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To: lowbridge

Axe


70 posted on 06/03/2023 6:34:50 PM PDT by chuck allen
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To: lowbridge

I wonder if they’ll have a word to describe people who really do the all the work that affirmative action hires can’t.


71 posted on 06/03/2023 6:38:23 PM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (I stayed drug - free going on 63 years for this?)
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To: lowbridge

It’ll be interesting to compare this dictionary with the more complete works already published in Wakanda.


72 posted on 06/03/2023 8:18:03 PM PDT by Charles Martel (Progressives are the crab grass in the lawn of life.)
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To: lowbridge

Obama and his buddy Henry Louis Gates Jr. are the definition of racist Uncle Toms.

Haters of all others of THEIR OWN RACE!

Wanting to keep them all in poverty and wirhout ANY power.

Obama and Gates Jr. are the archetypes of Black slave owners!


73 posted on 06/03/2023 9:24:03 PM PDT by Syncro (God is Good-Facts is Facts)
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To: dfwgator

Well it’s Obama’s party that created the KKK.

First time I’ve seen Obama operate from his 1/2 whiteness.


74 posted on 06/03/2023 9:28:37 PM PDT by Syncro (God is Good-Facts is Facts)
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To: GrandJediMasterYoda

Gates and Sanger leaders in trying to whipe out the poor blacks, and Gates whites too!

What Obama doesn’t know is that they want him dead too!


75 posted on 06/03/2023 9:33:00 PM PDT by Syncro (God is Good-Facts is Facts)
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To: AndyJackson

XD XD XD

apologies. That was pretty bad.


76 posted on 06/04/2023 5:29:07 AM PDT by Sarcazmo (I live by the Golden Rule. As applied by others; I'm not selfish.)
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To: lowbridge

I gotta ask: who’s going to buy this book? Brothers in the ‘hood? Yeah, right...


77 posted on 06/04/2023 7:48:36 AM PDT by Clioman
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