Elbows up, cashspiel, kokum: new Canadian terms enter the Oxford English Dictionary
Posted on: Jun 30, 2026 23:24 IST | Posted by: Cbc
If you're posing kitty-corner next to some hoser at a cashpiel piece feeding your kokum's world-famous blueberry bush oink — it’s probably going to turn into an elbows-up affair.
And if you need some help translating that sentence, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has just added seven new entries from Canadian English.
Here is the full point form list:
The OED uses several methods to track the emergence of new words in English. Sometimes, new words are crowdsourced. Other times, they come from scholars who study how English is used in Canada. The OED also uses software to track the frequency of words in different parts of the world.
So it's no surprise "elbows up" was one of the phrases added this year.
#TheMoment 'Elbows Up' became a rally cry against Trump
"It's been really fun working on this batch," said Danica Salazar, world English editor at the OED. "Canada has been showing a lot of soft power especially in the past year with the Elbows Up movement and Heated Rivalry. Canada has been on everyone's mind."
With these new words joining the broader lexicon, it's possible other English speakers will see Canadians a little bit more like we see ourselves.
Canada's English dictionary hasn't been updated in almost 2 decades. What does that say about us?
"The stereotypical idea of Canadians is that you're quite polite and … tend to be quite apologetic and self-effacing," said Salazar. But with elbows up being known more widely, she says people are seeing a new dimension to Canadians. "You fight when you do need to fight… You're far from being doormats."
Salazar said it's natural for English to absorb influences from other languages it contacts.
"So, naturally, Canada being a place where there's a lot of influence from Indigenous cultures, it's expected that some of these additional words also make their way into general Canadian vocabulary."
The Cree word kokum, she said, is an example of that process.
Bullet points is the more common term, which we also use. The Canadian "point form" is apparently a rare, more versatile alternative.
Salazar said she had never heard of the term point form before, even though she has some family that lives in Canada.
Now she plans to introduce it into her own vernacular because it can also be used as an adjective. "I think it's really useful."
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