'Spice bag' among Irish words recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary

"Spice bag", "Class", and "Blaa" are just some of the Irish words and terms that have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED).

The OED announced the new inclusions as part of its March update which saw a focus on loan words from other languages particularly from Ireland, South Africa and southeast Asia.

The OED has said the English language has borrowed a huge amount of new words thanks to the Hiberno-English language, including the word "ludraman", a word used in James Joyce's Ulysses, defined as "a lazy, unproductive, or stupid person (especially a man)".

The word "class", widely used across Ireland, has been defined as "a general term of approval: excellent, fantastic, great".

Irish food terms/words have also been added to the OED this month including the popular spice bag, defined as "a takeaway meal usually sold from either Chinese food outlets or fish and chip shops" along with the word "Blaa", more commonly known in Waterford which was also awarded Protected Geographical Indication status by the European Commission.

Other Irish words added include "debs", "morto" and "mineral", relating to a soft drink.

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