The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added two Ethiopian words to its latest update: Azmari and berbere. One comes from music. The other comes from the kitchen. Together they show how Ethiopian culture travels into English.<\/p>\n
Addis Insight reported the news on September 23, 2026. The OED\u2019s own September notes also highlight new contributions from East Africa. For many Ethiopians at home and across the five-million-strong diaspora, these words are everyday words. Now they sit inside a dictionary that records how English grows across the world.<\/p>\n
The OED links English use of \u201cAzmari\u201d to 1865. The word describes an Ethiopian poet, singer, and musician who often creates verses in the moment. Performers may accompany themselves on a stringed instrument such as the masenqo (a one-string fiddle) or the krar (a lyre).<\/p>\n
In Amharic, azmari means singer or minstrel. An Azmari can mix music, storytelling, humour, and sharp social comment. Some singers invent lines about guests in the room as the night unfolds. The tradition stays strong in azmari bets, the entertainment houses where guests come to listen, laugh, and share a drink.<\/p>\n
Azmari culture helped shape beloved song forms, including the reflective tizita ballad. When the dictionary records \u201cAzmari,\u201d it records a living art, not only a label. For listeners in Addis Ababa and far from home, the word names a voice they already recognize.<\/p>\n
Berbere is the deep red spice mix at the heart of Ethiopian and Eritrean cooking. The OED records English use from 1970. It describes a powdered blend that often includes chilli, coriander, fenugreek, garlic, and ginger. The term comes from Amharic and related Tigrinya forms.<\/p>\n
At home, berbere is more than one jar on a shelf. Families and producers keep their own recipes. The spice shapes dishes such as doro wat (spicy chicken stew), siga wat (meat stew), and misir wat (lentil stew). As Ethiopian restaurants and diaspora kitchens grow around the world, the word travels with the food. Food writers, chefs, and home cooks now reach for the Amharic name instead of a vague English substitute.<\/p>\n
A dictionary entry does not invent a tradition. Azmari performers and berbere kitchens existed long before English writers needed the names. The OED addition documents how English speakers borrowed the original words because the ideas were too specific to replace.<\/p>\n
One word carries Ethiopia\u2019s oral and musical life. The other carries its flavour. Both give readers abroad a clearer way to name what Ethiopians already know well. In a month filled with Meskerem festivals, the news feels especially timely: culture is not only celebrated at home. It is also written into the wider record of English.<\/p>\n
Which of these two words feels closest to your daily life: the song of the Azmari, or the scent of berbere in the kitchen?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has added two Ethiopian words to its latest update: Azmari and berbere. One comes from music. The other comes from the kitchen. Together they show how Ethiopian culture travels into English. Addis Insight reported the news on September 23, 2026. The OED\u2019s own September notes also highlight new contributions from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sharing_disabled":false,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[2,4,420],"tags":[695,640,692,663,644,694,71,678,693],"class_list":["post-15483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-arts-and-entertainment","category-news","tag-amharic","tag-azmari","tag-berbere","tag-diaspora","tag-ethiopian-culture","tag-ethiopian-food","tag-ethiopian-music","tag-meskerem","tag-oxford-english-dictionary"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/featured-oed-azmari-berbere.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9OJMY-41J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tewnet.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}