It is a day undoubtedly long awaited by Western Pennsylvania’s untold number of largely anonymous jagoffs — recognition by one of the world’s great authorities on language.
The Oxford English Dictionary has added “jagoff” to the hundreds of thousands of words it has been defining since the 19th century as legitimate use of the English language. It was one of more than 1,000 entries added this month by the dictionary, which updates its listings quarterly.
It defines the term in multiple ways online. In one dictionary section, it refers to jagoff as U.S. dialect “(chiefly in western Pennsylvania) a stupid, irritating, or contemptible person.” Elsewhere, it lists additional slang meanings, including “a person who steals items of little value” (evidently an archaic British usage).
We Pittsburghers who feel victimized by careless motorists, inept sports officials, rude line-jumpers and other scoundrels typically like the “contemptible” meaning best. You’re probably not a real yinzer, however, if you haven’t also joshingly addressed a friend as a “jagoff” when out for drinks or arguing about the Steelers.
Carnegie Mellon University linguistics professor Barbara Johnstone, an authority on Pittsburghese dialect, sees jagoff’s Oxford appearance as a milestone, even though she disagrees with some of Oxford’s interpretations of the word. She sees it as having Scots-Irish origins related to the poking or pricking done by a “jagger bush” — a sharp irritant, in other words.
Nonetheless, ”I think it helps people to know that a small regional dialect like Pittsburghese is really legitimate — that it’s not just a joke, that it has a history, that it’s a valuable part of our heritage,” she said. “The Oxford English Dictionary is the best respected historical dictionary of the English language.”
That British-based dictionary’s status is notable in that a group of Pittsburghers mounted an unsuccessful petition drive two years ago to win jagoff’s acceptance in the more American Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary. A Merriam-Webster’s representative at the time said the term was not universal enough to be added.
John Chamberlin, an organizer of that effort and founder of the www.yajagoff.com Pittsburgh-centric humor website, is delighted that the authoritative Brits are the ones jumping on board now, even if he also disputes some of the listed meanings.
“In Pittsburgh I think we use it for someone who’s being a jerk, somebody who cuts you off in traffic,” said Mr. Chamberlin, a media and marketing consultant from Kennedy. “Or else as a term of endearment. It’s like you go to the family reunion and say, ‘I haven’t seen you in 20 years. Oh my God, how you doin’, you jagoff?’ ”
He credited billionaire investor and sports mogul Mark Cuban with winning national attention for the term in July when speaking at a Hillary Clinton campaign event here. The Mt. Lebanon native was widely quoted as criticizing what he called the loud, intimidating leadership style of Donald Trump.
He told the crowd: “You know what we call a person like that in Pittsburgh? A jagoff!”
An ironic footnote in jagoff’s status, perhaps, is its prominent usage in this very article. In May 2012, Post-Gazette executive editor David M. Shribman issued a memo to the newspaper’s staff directing that the word was, essentially, banned from further appearances in the publication.
Asked for an update Friday, Mr. Shribman said the term would still “not ordinarily appear” in the newspaper. The ban remains, he said, but with the possibility of exceptions.
“I recognize that ‘jagoff’ now has the imprimatur of perhaps the greatest authoritative work in the English language, but there are lots of words that are in the O.E.D. that we don’t use,” he said. “I realize I sound like a jagoff holding to this position. A jagoff, perhaps, but I hope a good-natured one.”
Gary Rotstein: grotstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1255.
First Published: September 16, 2016, 6:18 p.m.
Updated: September 17, 2016, 4:03 a.m.