'Panya route, kitu kidogo' now in Oxford English Dictionary

Businessman giving bribe money in a brown envelope. [/iStockphoto]

Panya route and kitu kidogo are among the newest entries in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for 2024.

Panya route is defined as "a secret path or roundabout route, especially one used for smuggling." 

An example sentence in the dictionary reads: “The war raged on. With Mama leading, their group took panya routes and supplied drugs and information to the liberators.”

Meanwhile, kitu kidogo is described as "money offered or accepted as an inducement or bribe."

In its quarterly update, the OED published nearly 200 new and revised entries for East African English. 

“These additions and revisions reflect words used chiefly or exclusively in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda—three countries that share a common Anglophone background despite their differing colonial histories,” the OED release notes.

One of the newest entries is sambaza, a verb originally used to mean “to send mobile phone credit to someone.” The word has since evolved to mean “to share or send something more generally.”

“Dating back to 2007, the English word derives from the Swahili, sambaza, meaning ‘to spread, disperse, scatter,’ and now also ‘to transfer mobile phone credit,’” the OED explains.

This update also includes several new and revised entries for Swahili-origin words, such as buibui, kanga, kanzu, chapo, jiko, and mandazi. Additionally, traditional Kenyan home-brewed alcoholic drinks like muratina and busaa have been added to the dictionary.