I’m departing from the normal jagoffs blog post today to summarize all last week’s excitement!
Happy Monday… well… it is because the Steelers won and you know that Pittsburgh MonDEES go as the Steelers SunDEES go! But more importantly, in case you haven’t heard… the word JAGOFF was entered into the Oxford Dictionary last Friday along with about 1,000 other new words.
Below is a summary of the various media mentions the blog received on Friday/Saturday.
Friday morning, my phone started blowing up with people, who remembered our 2014 petition campaign to get the word into the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Videos, blog posts, news coverage…it went on for 6 weeks and included raising funds for the Pittsburgh Emergency Medicine Foundation thanks to 3 Guys Optical. We were successful at getting almost 2,000 signatures on the petition but……the dictionary peeps said that the word had to be used more universally. Petitions don’t work for them.
The 2014 Press Conference
The 2014 Press Conference (Behind the Scenes)
But now we have validation from the big boy of dictionaries, The Oxford Dictionary.
Here’s a list of the media outlets that covered the Breaking Jagoff News:
Trib Live (Megan Guza)
UpGruv (Chris Pastrick)
Post Gazette (Gary Rotstein)
Radio Interviews on 93.7 FM The Fan and KDKA-AM
As you will see in some of these interviews, it’s cool that the word is in the Oxford Dictionary but……they still don’t define it correctly.. as Pittsburghers use the word.
In Pittsburgh, the word Jagoff can be used in a few different ways:
- Expressing appreciation to someone, with a smile on your face and a hug, you say, “Ya Jagoff!”
- Expressing being startled, half chuckling you say, “You scared the HECK outta me, Ya Jagoff!”
- And then there’s the version, that’s posted on our blog every day… venting about someone that has been a jerk, with a scowl on your face, “Learn to use a turn signal, Ya Jagoff!”
So that’s it! Thanks for reading/following the blog over the last 5 years and thanks for all of the fun! Let’s keep it rolling. Hey Merriam-Webster peeps….we’re in a the Oxford Dictionary! It’s now time to step-up and put the word Jagoff into YOUR dictionary………………..Ya Jagoffs!!
Listen to the YaJagoff Podcast here.
