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Kottu roti and Kiribath added to Oxford English Dictionary
25 Jun, 2025
The popular Sri Lankan dishes Kottu roti and Kiribath have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary, the Oxford University Press said in a statement, Wednesday.
Oxford University Press said that baila and papare have also been added to the Oxford English Dictionary.
Kottu roti is a Sri Lankan dish consisting of pieces of roti, meat, and vegetables, mixed with spices and curry sauce, and chopped by cleavers as they are cooked on a griddle.
It is typically associated with the distinctive sound of the cleavers hitting the griddle as it is prepared by roadside vendors, and its name combines the Tamil word kottu ‘chopped’ with the Sinhala word roṭi ‘bread’.
Apart from adding new Sri Lankan English words, OED editors have also revised a number of existing Sri Lankan English entries in the dictionary.
The full list of Sri Lankan English words added in this update is as follows:
- asweddumize, v.
- Avurudu, n.
- baila, n.
- kiribath, n.
- kottu roti, n.
- mallung, n.
- osari, n.
- papare, n.
- walawwa, n.
- watalappam, n.
The full list of Sri Lankan English words revised in this update is as follows:
- Ceylon coffee, n. and Ceylon tea, n. in Ceylon, n.
- Ceylonese, n. and adj.
- Colombo, n.
- corral, n. sense 1.b
- creeper, n. sense 11
- dagoba, n.
- demi-farthing, n. in demi-, prefix
- dissava, n.
- Dravidian, adj. and n.
- hook money, n.
- kangany, n.
- khedda, n.
- kraal, n. sense 2b and Kraaltown, n.
- kraal, v.
- leech gaiters, n.
- Sinhali, n.
- Sri Lankan, n. and adj.
- Tamil, n. and adj.
- Tamilian, adj. and n.
- Tamil Tiger, n.
- three-halfpence, n.
- UNP, n.
- Vedda, n.
- Veddoid, adj. and n.
- vihara, n.
(Colombo Gazette)
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