While festas have been absent from Maltese streets for two years now, they have made it to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), joining other Maltese words dghaisa, karrozzin, lampuki… and spitchered.

The noun festa, which according to the online platform Kelma Kelma was added during the pandemic, is defined as “a religious or other festival”.

Linking its use to “predominantly Roman Catholic countries”, the OED lists its etymological origin as a partial borrowing from Maltese, Portuguese and Italian.

In 2015, former OED chief editor John Simpson had told Times of Malta that words make it into the dictionary following evidence they are well attested in English language sources.

While the Maltese have borrowed plenty of words from the British, they have also lent them a handful, with the adjective spitchered being the most curious of them all.

Derived from spiċċa, the 1920 naval slang entry means “rendered inoperative, ruined”, OED says.

The dictionary links the word to some references, including a 1920 Blackwood’s Magazine quote in which a commanding officer screams “cease firing! He’s spitchered”.

The word also features in a 1970 book by Peter Dickinson, The seals: “that damned gadget might be functioning right as rain in thirty seconds, or it might be spitchered for ever”.

Lampuki, karozzin and dghaisa (Maltese spelling dgħajsa) were also probably imported into English thanks to the British servicemen and tourists who came into regular contact with the Maltese.

The dictionary meanwhile sheds light on the evolution of some words – its 1926 reference to karozzin is listed as carozzi, while in 1972 the Daily Telegraph coined the plural karozzins: “They’re horse-drawn ‘karrozzins’, and each one is so beautifully painted you get the feeling all the owners are in earnest competition.”

Up until the inclusion of festa, dghaisa was considered the most popular in recent history, and even crowned Syamantak Payra the 2012 champion of the South Asian Spelling Bee.