Manglish is ‘atas’ now, says Oxford English Dictionary

PETALING JAYA: Aiyoh Ah Beng, haven’t you heard?

The Oxford English Dictionary has included Malay-Manglish words such as rendang and mamak among more than 1,000 revisions and updates to its latest edition.

Other Malaysian words in the September list of new terms include atas (high social status), bodoh (stupid), aiyah, char kuey teow, kopitiam (coffeeshop), ang pow and pancit (colloquially used to mean “worn out and tired”).

They join other interesting entries in the 150-year-old dictionary’s collection of 600,000 words, such as six of Roald Dahl’s made-up terms including splendiferous, which means full of or abounding in splendour, and human bean, a mispronunciation of the word human being by the giant in the 1982 children’s book The BFG.

Moobs, meaning unusually prominent breasts on a man, also made the cut, as well as the netspeak favourite YOLO, an acronym for “You Only Live Once”.