What overcooked gibberish is this'chef's kiss'?!
Cambridge Dictionary for going too far with wordcrime by legitimising gibberish. The inclusion of 'chef's kiss' among the new entries of 2024 really takes the cake as the most nonsensical addition yet.
Someone has to draw the line at the gimmicks churned out year after year by the self-appointed guardians of the English language. Now, you might accuse me of reading an idiom too literally. But it's not that. 'Chef's kiss' is neither clever nor particularly evocative. It's no 'rat's arse', a phrase I'm rather fond of.
For the uninitiated who missed the news in July, 'chef's kiss' refers to a visual representation of a chef holding out his fingers as if to kiss them, indicating something that meets his approval — like something that's 'finger-lickin' good' of the 'Mama mia!' kind. How does it capture the zeitgeist of evolving language when it lacks recall — unlike terms such as 'namaste' or 'thumbs up,' which are represented as emojis on phones? Those terms resonate as visual communications from daily life.
The latest iteration of 'chef's kiss' likely has its roots in the online foodie community, where it circulates in comments sections of food blogs and social media platforms. While its usage can be acknowledged in certain circles, we must call it what it is: the tendency of dictionary authorities to scout the far corners of the internet for entries that attract eyeballs, thereby costing us both language and linguistic integrity.
If we trace the trend back, we can pin it on CD's eternal rival OED, which raised
