Filipino word “gigil” added to the Oxford English Dictionary

Have you ever seen something so cute but lacking a word to describe it? Worry no more, as the Filipino word for that feeling has recently been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Gigil is the word used to describe an intense feeling caused by anger, eagerness, and/or the pleasure of seeing something or someone so cute that it demands a physical reaction like clenching hands or squeezing the thing or person that caused the emotion.

In Vancouver, OMNI News spoke with the city’s Filipino community members, who said they were delighted with the inclusion of the word in the dictionary. They said seeing gigil in the reference book feels good and that it’s fun to hear other English speakers use the word.

“I’m not surprised,” says former University of Alberta instructor and communication expert Veronica Caparas. “We have to look back and see that our people are trained in English phonetics.”

Caparas said the Filipino language’s use of English phonetics makes the language easier to integrate into English sentences.

Oxford English Dictionary is one of the most comprehensive English dictionaries in the world. This year, 42 other loaned words from countries like Singapore and Malaysia were included in the list. Other Filipino words that made it to the dictionary this year are videoke and salakot.

According to Oxford, adding words from other languages is a way to bridge language gaps for English speakers who speak another language and may need to use a word with no direct English translation.

Caparas said including gigil in the dictionary may also result from mass and social media. She says it’s not unlikely for hybrid words like salamuch (from the Filipino word salamat or thank you merged with the English word ‘much’) to get absorbed in the English language as it grows and modernizes.

For now, the next time you feel that intense feeling of pleasure, know there’s a word for that.