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Glasgow Live
Glasgow Live
National
Stuart MacDonald

Glaswegian slang 'cream puff' added to Oxford English Dictionary

Author James Kelman has helped get Scottish rhyming slang term "cream puff" into the Oxford English Dictionary.

A new meaning for "cream puff" has been included in the dictionary to reflect it being a Glaswegian slang term for being in the huff.

Booker Prize winner Kelman has been honoured with a mention in the latest edition of the tome after being credited with popularising the term.

READ MORE: The classic Glasgow sayings and habits that wind up Edinburgh and vice versa

The dictionary's researchers found the earliest printed mention of the word in that context was in the 76-year-old Glasgow-born writer's 1985 novel A Chancer.

A passage in the book reads: "He grinned at him and pointed at McCann. He's away in the f*****g cream puff! Imagine that? At his time of life."

The official entry for "cream puff" in the dictionary reads: "Scottish colloquial (chiefly Glasgow). A state of petty annoyance, esp. in the cream puff. huff."

The dictionary said the word had also been used in the late Scottish author Jeff Torrington's 1992 novel Swing Hammer Swing.

In the book a character says the line: "You still in the cream puff, or what?"

The dictionary also cited a recent mention of the phrase in a Twitter post from 2020 to show it is still in common use among Scots.

A man from Stirlingshire posted: "Told my buddy I wasn't running today then I decided to go out. She's in a cream puff with me lol."

The original entry for "cream puff" was added to the dictionary in 1893 and reads: "A puff pastry case, typically round, and filled with cream."

Nearly 700 new words, senses, and phrases have been added to the dictionary in their latest update.

Last year, Sir Billy Connolly has managed to get the word "trousered" to describe being drunk into the dictionary

A new meaning for trousered was included in the dictionary to reflect it being a slang term for being intoxicated.

Researchers found the earliest printed mention of the word in that context was in a 1977 newspaper interview with Glasgow-born Connolly.

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