Five Cool (English) Words I Picked up in 2025
A decent wordsmith with aspirations of becoming a world-class raconteur, I am always on the look-out for worthwhile additions to my lexicon.
Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I speak two languages with a native proficiency- Shona and English. I dabble in a couple other ones, but not enough to where words are remarkably new (as opposed to, say, just an addition to an already-skinny vocabulary.) So for example, a new Spanish word, to me, would just register as “I learned something else in this language I’m still learning”, while in English and/or Shona, it registers as “just when I thought I knew it all…!”
As to why English (and not Shona)? Part of it is simply current exposure: from where I live, work, the media I consume etc, there are exponentially more places where I’m going to pick up a new English word than a Shona one- those typically coming from segments of social media and urban music. If the first reason is indicting of me (and my consumption habits specifically), the second indicts the space at large. That is: the lack of etymological documentation. If I hear a new Shona word, say, on a song, and I run it through the interwebs, chances are high that you can’t find where that word originally came from, and what meaning it’s meant to have in this context. Did they make it up right now? Is it a word of Portuguese or Afrikaans origin? Is it ndau or Korekore?Sneak in from Chewa or Ndebele? Short of talking to the person actually saying it- and that’s if they know what they’re saying- you may be out of luck. English (and I hate to be seen to be singing the merits of a hegemonic and imperial culture) has generally done a decent job of “this word is from the 14th century, and was first used by Chaucer in the Canterbury Tales…” It’s the work that lay before us as custodians of all things Africa and we’ll get to that (next piece perhaps?)
But for now, let us delight in these five delectable contributions to our linguistic palettes that I a) either heard for the first time last year or b) had heard before but developed a particular fascination last year!
5) Stickybeak
Meaning: Australian and New Zealand slang for a nosy person, busybody, or someone who meddles in others’ affairs.
Source (for me): The Australian podcast Casefile: True Crime
Personal Fascination: Almost entirely surrounded by either American (living in the US) or British/Southern African (Zimbabwean) English, it’s always fascinating to come across a different colloquialism for a familiar entity/phenomenon.
4) Manichean
Meaning: to follow the philosophy of Manichaeism, which is an old religion that breaks everything down into good or evil. It also means “duality,” so if your thinking is Manichean, you see things in black and white.’
Source (for me): Can’t remember, but it is a word used pretty often in academic, moral, and political spaces that its source wouldn’t be as interesting, even if I knew it.
Personal Fascination: While scholar me absolutely appreciates the big words, poet me? Not so much. So it’s rare that I come across a word that is technical and not folksy that I just gel with. This, I think, is pretty useful in decrying moral absolutism- and it’s just fun to say.
Manichean.
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3) Gossip: Y’all know gossip; but the origin- listen!
Meaning:“sib” means kin/relative. So when we say “sibling” for example, you are saying “my little relative.” Thus, in old English, Godsib was a more generic term for, say, your godparent (or your child’s godparent; or a fellow-godchild of the same godparent.) Put simply, it represented some form of semi-formal kinship-important enough that marriage between such was often forbidden.
Such people, however, would often be confidantes; the people you spill the tea about your family and personal affairs. Close enough to piece it together and wish y’all well, but far outside enough to not be directly involved in what you are talking about. So going “god-sibbing” became a tongue-in-cheek term for “going to discuss what’s been going on over here…”
In time, Godsib said fast became Gossib; then the tonal shift from b to p, and fast forward to TMZ and The Shade Room, we cant get enough of gossip. More on that later.
Personal Fascination: None really- just some cool etymological trivia
2) Morbs
Meaning: Victorian-era slang phrase for experiencing a temporary, passing bout of sadness, melancholy, or the “blues”. Coined from the adjective “morbid,” the term was used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to describe a feeling of, or a situation causing, low spirits.
Source: Popped up on the socials every now and then; and been confirmed.
Personal Fascination: I have never felt more seen.
- Scandalbroth
Meaning: an old name for tea. But it’s also a “reference to tea as the beverage of choice while the woman-folk sat around and gossiped” (early 19th Century.)
Source (For me): The weekly hangout shindig our history department puts on for/with the students. Historians we are, somebody always brings in a yesteryear trinket to fascinate folks- and they brought the following card.
Personal Fascination: It’s delightful, is it not? While the idea of “spilling the tea” originates in Black American spaces (and, in particular, Black queer spaces) in the 20th century and garnering steam into the 21st, it is chuckleworthy how different cultures have chosen this as their drink of choice for the good ol’ god-sibbing.
And there you have it. Learnt any new words lately? What are your favorites?
