Tony Deyal | Words, words and more where they come from

When I was born, the Brits had the Africans and the Indians cutting cane. When I was three years old, a nearby neighbour had daily newspapers and she taught me how to read. At that time, the Brits had newspapers and the Oxford English Dictionary.

After such a long time, more than 77 years after I started reading, I still grab the Oxford to see what the “new” words are for the year. Because every year Oxford had several, I will start five years ago, 2020, to give you a sense of what were a few of the new words which reflected significant cultural, social, and technological changes. In that year, they had three words - “lockdown” (restriction of COVID-19), “furlough” (employees during the pandemic), and “covidiot” (a slang for people who ignore public health advice during the pandemic). In 2016, fortunately, it was one- “post-truth” where facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than emotion and personal belief. The next year, 2021 was “vax” which reflected the cultural focus on vaccines during the pandemic. Then, in 2022, it was “Goblin mode”.

This was self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy. “Riz” was the Word of the Year 2023 and was for the ability of attracting another person through style, charm, or charisma, and, most of all, attractiveness. The one we have now, in 2024, is “brain rot”. It is about the impact of consuming excessive amounts of low-quality, online content on social media.

While many of us in the Caribbean region check out and talk about the vax and brain rot, we have our own that initially were occasionally part of the bigger international picture. However, recently, especially with a carnival of words in Caribbean English in 2021, we were able to look back and, increasingly after, forward. We know the places like all the countries, but what about “Baje, Bajie, Bimas,” or “Brawak, Tonio, Wai Wait,” and even a new one, “Lokono”. More, we have our own national English from Antiguan to Trinidadian.

Then there was the past back from the past to the present with us! “Bammy”, first attested in 1852, more than 100 years, is a Jamaican cooker. “Casiri” from Guyana and Suriname since 1796 is an alcoholic drink or cassava juice and sweet potato. We had “hard-dog bread” (1911), “jug jug” and, the one my Jamaican friend dropped on me, “mannish water” without the water - just “mannish Tony”. We had “tum-tum” and “tie-teeth”, “snowball”, and “sancocho”. But we also went beyond food only. We grew up with “gris-gris”, which is a piece of paper hidden in your bag as an “amulet” or charm, supposedly for catching one of the boys (I heard). There was “kanaima” causing sickness or death, and one the whole Caribbean knows “soucouyant” who shed her skin in the night and, with a ball of fire, sucked the blood of victims while they slept.

For me and the Trinis, “calypso” started in 1900, “soca” (1973), “chutney” or “chatney soca” (1987), “dub” (1973), “ska” (1964) and zouk (1986). The “wining” with the waist and hips, with “round and round we go”, went back to 1790. “Wuk” or “Wuk up”, which started as “work”, came shortly after. Then the Jamaicans had “dutty wine”, which Tony Matterhorn got everyone to “do di dutty win” and “do di dutty wuk”. Don’t talk about Trini “tabanca” (1968) when they felt the pressure after the end of carnival. What I still like are the links from where we came. We in the Caribbean have “bongo” and Africans had “bobol”. There are so many others like “bassa-bassa”. Spanish “brata”. Urdu “tassa”, and the South Asian “dhantal.”

One that I and most Caribbean folks liked from the start was the French Creole word “comes”. It is interesting that I and some of my friends loved to fish with boats that were pointed at each end. Interestingly, from the past, in 1796, it was “corial” and started in Goa, in western India, along the Arabian Sea. While I will change a four-letter word that I rear-lee use, they gave us some nice ones to use, like, “to catch/ketch one’s behind” or, in other words, suffer or undergo misfortune or hardship. There is a “catch-rear” or a bad time, and to “sheg” was to provoke or annoy someone who would then respond by telling you what part of your body to “haul”, and sometimes to include your mother in the mix.

One that I still like and actually grew up with from when I was seven years old was “Steups”. It is supposed to be a Caribbean reaction with us sucking, or being sucked, through our teeth to show how upset we were or “vex”, meaning, at best, “angry”. In September 2021, the Caribbean English added some that most of us used. or knew, such as “barrack yard” or “tenement yard” (where most of my friends lived); to catch one’s ‘rear’ but most times another four-letter word ending in ‘e’; ‘local white’ (which says everything and more); and ‘to eat parrot head’. While a few people think that parrots like to be on the top of their heads. and others are convinced that things are tough if you have to eat a parrot’s head, the US and others are clear that calling someone a “Parrothead” refers to the fans of singer Jimmy Buffet. When asked what they do with Buffet, nobody has so far responded to who does what to whom.

What I found interesting is that our Caribbean English has “hoodoo” but not “doodoo”. However, they have made up for “lime” who may or not be the same as “limer”. However, unless you add “saga boy” that can mean you are “slack” for days. While the new dictionaries have “bobolee”, the Instagram, a popular, Meta-owned social media platform had it as “Creation by Succulent Factor”. Then there is “broughtupsy”, something that is well known to all of us and our children but, when I saw the word “feg”, I learnt that it depends on context and can be Fair Entitlement Guarantee in Australia, a cigarette in Northern Ireland, an archaic word for a segment of fruit or a clove of garlic, or a defunct Japanese combat sport promoter.

Right now, it is almost “fore day” morning, and I have not got or “ketcha” a sleep or, depending on the time and how I feel, I will get a “B-day”, especially since I already had a happy birthday and too much to eat and drink. Worse, while “Manspread” is how some men sit with their legs so wide apart in public place that they take up more than one seat, in my case, it is dropping straight on my bed, flat down and out.

Tony Deyal saw in an Oxford dictionary latest update in 2023, “Side hustle” .One of my friends told his wife it was to earn money on top of his regular income. Unfortunately, she caught him on a slide-hustle and he got muscle with her bustle. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com