Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Weird Word of the Week: Hongkonger


Dear Readers, although this word may sound vaguely vulgar, it just refers to a person from Hong Kong. Hongkonger and Hongkongese have both been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

Both words refer to "a native or inhabitant of Hong Kong." Hongkongese "can also be used as an adjective to describe matters related to the city or its inhabitants," according to the South China Morning Post.

The newspaper reports that Civic Party lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching residents of Hong Kong are trying to differentiate themselves from people who live in mainland China. "Not just the people are different, but also our cultural spirit and political identity," she said.

Even though the term HongKonger has been used since the late 1800s, it hasn't been recognized by the OED until this latest update.

This update also added herogram, do-over, and wackadoodle. Madame L does not know whether "wackadoodle" is illustrated with a photo of any U.S. politician, but if the OED editors are interested, Madame L could certainly suggest a few candidates.

Madame L assumes all her Dear Readers are already familiar with the words do-over and wackadoodle. Madame L had not heard the word herogram until reading about these new additions to the OED, so she looked it up, online, at --- you'll never guess where, Dear Readers --- Urban Dictionary, where she found that it means "a message of heartfelt appreciation or thanks."


If Madame L were to send a herogram today, or any day, here's who she'd send it to.

2 comments:

AskTheGeologist said...

Awwwwww....

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Pricklypear said...

Madame L, this is probably weird, but for the last 2 nights I've been having dreams about you and your family. What is going on? Why are you in my head?

Also, I'm glad to hear that wackadoodle is in the OED now, my boss says it all the time about all sorts of things.