Brian Bonitto, Editor - Overseas Publications

( L - R ) Seaga, Devonish

Yeah, mon!

Politics is in the air and on the lips of everyone following Barack Obama's victory in last Tuesday's United States presidential election. Jamaicans, too, are creating a stir.

According to a recent release from the ANI news agency in London, the Jamaican-coined word 'politricks' has been added to the second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slangs.

The release read: "'Politricks' has Jamaican origins and means politics characterised by dishonesty."

Preservation the aim

The release quoted co-editor John Ayto in the Telegraph as saying new slang words and expressions have flooded into the English language and preservation is the main aim.

"Slang seems to be much more widely accepted these days in society and the media," Ayto said.

But given the origin, does the word paint the Jamaican politician in a bad light?

Former Prime Minister Edward Seaga does not think so. The one-time Jamaica Labour Party leader said the word is not exclusive to Jamaican politics.

"I don't think it refers to the Jamaican politician," he said. "It can be any political system."

Seaga, whose political career began in 1959 and spanned almost 50 years, said the term is a combination of the words politics and tricks. He, however, was unable to say when he first heard the word, but knows it goes back "very far".

Professor Hubert Devonish, head of the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of the West Indies, pins the genesis of the word around the 1960s.

"It was invented by political activists," the lecturer said. "And, it is probably of Caribbean origin."

Internationally acceptable

But what does this mean for Jamaica?

Devonish sees the inclusion of 'politricks' in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slangs as an indication that the word has become internationally acceptable.

"It has become sufficiently well known to be included," he said.

"Jamaicans (locally) and Jamaicans overseas have strong influence on the way people use language elsewhere."

The dictionary contains 6,000 slangs and expressions, including 350 new words, while another 1,000 words have had their meanings expanded or altered.

brian.bonitto@gleanerjm.com