‘Class’ in the Derry sense included in Oxford English Dictionary update thanks to Lisa McGee’s Derry Girls

The prestigious lexicon has revised its entry for Class to include the colloquial sense of the word as an adjective indicating ‘approval: excellent, fantastic, great’.

Pointing out that this usage is chiefly ‘Irish English and English regional (northern)’ in origin the dictionary entry cites an episode from the first series of Lisa McGee’s ‘Derry Girls’ in which Erin (Saoirse Monica-Jackson) uses the word.

"Class is how main character Erin describes her hometown of Derry, NI in an episode of the first season of the popular sitcom Derry Girls.

"Creator Lisa McGee’s 2018 script is quoted in the OED’s entry for the Irish and northern English usage of class as a general term of approval, which the dictionary dates back to 1981,” OED stated on Wednesday.

Another word familiar to readers in the North West is Mineral in the sense of what you would be looking for if you asked for a McDaid’s Football Special or a bottle of Maine.

This, according to the OED, is still common in Irish English and West African English as a term for a ‘carbonated soft drink’.

“Another usage that Irish English shares with other varieties of English is the use of mineral to mean a carbonated soft drink (1893). While still current in Irish English and West African English, this sense of mineral is now apparently unusual in British English, except as a commercial designation for soft drinks of this type,” the dictionary observes.

The other new Irish words and phrases added are: To act the maggot, to act or behave foolishly; to behave in a playful or silly way; to act the fool; Ludraman, from the Irish liúdramán or lúdramán, a colloquial and derogatory term for a lazy, unproductive, or stupid person; Blaa, the famous Waterford bread roll; Debs, the word for a school formal in Ireland’s southern provinces; Morto, apparently an Irish English shortening of mortified; and Spicebag, a Dublin takeaway order of chips, fried chicken, onions, peppers and spices that originated in the late 2000s.