Ten words from the Oxford Dictionary of African American English have been revealed ahead of its expected March 2025 release.
The Oxford Dictionary of African American English was first announced in June 2022 as a three-year research project that will define words and phrases that are uniquely African American and serve as a scholarly resource for Black speech, history, and culture.
Researchers and editors, including Henry Louis Gates Jr., are drawing from blues and hip-hop lyrics, Black literature, and even Black Twitter to complete the project, which is set to have an initial batch of 1,000 definitions.
During a recent virtual presentence, the first 100 words of the dictionary were shared, including phrases like “bussin,” which means impressive or tasty, and “boo,” a lover. Ten words — bussin, grill, Promised Land, chitterlings, kitchen, cakewalk, old school, pat, Aunt Hagar’s children, ring shot — were shared with the New York Times.
See the complete entries of the ten words below.
bussin (adjective and participle): 1. Especially describing food: tasty, delicious. Also more generally: impressive, excellent. 2. Describing a party, event, etc.: busy, crowded, lively. (Variant forms: bussing, bussin’.)
grill (n.): A removable or permanent dental overlay, typically made of silver, gold or another metal and often inset with gemstones, which is worn as jewelry.
Promised Land (n.): A place perceived to be where enslaved people and, later, African Americans more generally, can find refuge and live in freedom. (Etymology: A reference to the biblical story of Jewish people seeking freedom from Egyptian bondage.)
chitterlings (n. plural): A dish made from pig intestines that are typically boiled, fried or stuffed with other ingredients. Occasionally also pig intestines as an ingredient. (Variant forms: chitlins, chittlins, chitlings, chitterlins.)
kitchen (n.): The hair at the nape of the neck, which is typically shorter, kinkier and…
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