Zyzzyva is the last word
london — Eating a tasty meal with chana dal or doenjang washed down with a gin daisy could well foster a nice feeling of hygge. Just hope you don’t find any zyzzyva on your plate.
If you need to look up any of those words, the unofficial custodian of the English language now has the answers.
In its latest update, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) identified more than 600 words, phrases and senses that have entered common parlance. They include ‘zyzzyva’, a genus of tropical weevils native to South America. The word replaces zythum — an ancient Egyptian malt beer — as the OED’s final entry.
The name was apparently coined by the US entomologist Thomas Lincoln Casey, who described it in a 1922 work, the OED said.