Eleven Caribbean English terms have just entered the Oxford English Dictionary, and Trinidad and Tobago dominates the list. It's a small update by dictionary standards, but it doubles as a crash course in the islands' history — Carnival rebellion, folklore, food and family all packed into a vocabulary list.
The headline entry is Trinbagonian, the blended word for the people of Trinidad and Tobago, first recorded as an adjective in 1976 and as a noun in 1988. Going back further is Canboulay, traced to 1871 and rooted in the 19th-century festivities marking the 1834 emancipation of enslaved Africans — drumming, masquerade and stick-fighting that are considered the forerunner of today's Trinidad Carnival. The name comes from French Creole kann-boulé, or "burned cane," and British attempts to ban the celebrations sparked riots in 1881 and 1884. Reenactments still open Carnival season each year.
The folklore entries are the most atmospheric. A douen, documented since 1897, is the spirit of a child who died before baptism — small, wearing a large hat, with backward-pointing feet — said to call children by name and lead them into the forest. The jablesse is darker still: a shape-shifting female spirit with one cloven hoof who appears as a beautiful woman at night and lures men to their deaths. Both words carry traces of Spanish, Efik and French Creole origins.
Then there's the food and drink. Peanut punch, on record from 1960, blends peanuts or peanut butter with milk, sugar and spices, and is drunk across the region though it's most tied to Trinidad. Sugar cake — grated coconut cooked down with sugar, water and spices — dates to at least 1844, with recipes differing from island to island and family to family.
Everyday speech gets its due too. To get on, in Caribbean usage, means to throw an emotional outburst or make a scene (traced to 1905). Vex money, from 1974 and also used in Nigerian English, is the cash a woman keeps hidden for an emergency — two words that sum up an entire contingency plan. Hornerman, recorded from 1975, is Trinidadian slang for either an unfaithful man or the man involved with someone's partner.
Finally, nana and nani — Hindi loanwords for maternal grandfather and grandmother — reflect the deep South Asian influence on Trinidad, Tobago and Guyana. Nani has even broadened into a respectful way to address any older woman of South Asian heritage.
For travellers, this is more than trivia. Knowing a handful of these words changes how a trip to Trinidad lands: you'll catch the Canboulay reenactments for what they are, order a peanut punch with confidence at a roadside bar, and understand why someone laughing at a Carnival fete is described as "getting on." Language is one of the fastest ways a destination shows you who it is, and this list captures centuries of African, European, Indian and Creole exchange in eleven entries.
The full additions: Canboulay, douen, hornerman, jablesse, nana, nani, peanut punch, sugar cake, to get on, Trinbagonian and vex money.
