It's not the OED, but everyone's favorite Rachael Ray-ism is about to become an official part of our language, due for inclusion in the next edition of the Oxford American College Dictionary. The entry will read "EVOO: abbr. extra-virgin olive oil." The news was broken last week on Rachael Ray's talk show by the editor of the dictionary, who also spoke about how difficult it is to get words into the dictionary.
It makes you wonder if more people will buy the dictionary because of the new Rachael Ray connection, small though it is. It seems like the people buying the college edition of a dictionary are the most likely to turn to the internet (where you can easily find lots of info on EVOO) than to a reference book.
By the way - the cute shirt pictured here? It's available at the Rachael Ray shop.










Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-11-2006 @ 12:48PM
James said...
Please! Kill me now!!! Next will be Stoup.
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12-11-2006 @ 12:48PM
ryan said...
Rachel Ray obviously didn't design that shirt, or else it would say "EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)" since she feels the need to state the definition of an abbreviation every time she uses it - completely nullifying any reason of using an abbreviation in the first place.
Yeah, I can't stand her.
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12-11-2006 @ 12:48PM
aurora said...
Note to self: Send son to college with a WEBSTER.
Dear Rach,
If people have to look up your "catchphrase" in the dictionary, it's not a very good catchphrase.
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12-11-2006 @ 12:49PM
BWJones said...
Oh, for the love of...... Are they going to include "yum-oh" next? Ooooh, what about "delish"?
I don't intend to be mean about it, but the over-exposure is starting to grate on me. Many of the places I go for culinary resources are being populated by Rachel Ray and her nicht so gut culinary skills.
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12-11-2006 @ 1:01PM
frodo said...
@ryan
I was just going to come on and post that. I HATE that she has to explain the damn abbreviation each and every time. She is so completely obnoxious.
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12-11-2006 @ 1:45PM
Nina said...
If I wore that shirt out I wouldn't hear the end of, "What's eh-VOOH?"
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12-11-2006 @ 2:09PM
Mary Sue said...
Why didn't the editor say anything about how to get words OUT of the dictionary?
(I threw a book at my housemate this weekend when he said the Dreaded Four Letters. No, I'm not kidding. Yes, he ducked.)
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12-11-2006 @ 3:19PM
Bryan said...
@ ryan
Well put Ryan. Well put. I second that emotion.
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12-11-2006 @ 3:22PM
Jason said...
I'm so glad everyone else hates this acronym too. I turned on her show the other day because I'm a glutton for punishment and wanted to kick the front of my TV in after she said "EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)" for the twelfth time. How much olive oil does she use in a single half hour show anyways?
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12-11-2006 @ 3:34PM
Jen S said...
The real kicker is that once you heat extra virgin olive oil you're throwing your money down the train. Better to cook with standard issue olive oil and save the good stuff for post-cooking (drizzle on bread, salad, etc etc). I swear she uses it on everything. What a waste. I can't wait for her 15 minutes to be up.
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12-11-2006 @ 4:56PM
Cary said...
Lighten up folks...there are much bigger things to get worked up about, if you can't think of one, count yourself blessed.
No. 4: The "catch phrse" works: you think of Ray and olive oil for cooking, don't you? Last time I checked, the dictionary was full of words that everyone knows the meaning of...it is a source for many other reasons (word origin, use, etc.) and a historical log of the evolution of our language.
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12-11-2006 @ 5:51PM
Word Diggity said...
Cary,
I've been using olive oil for cooking for something like twenty years now, looooooong before the too-cute-for-words Miss Ray came on the scene. Cooks have been using it for hundreds (probably thousands) of years before that. It's not new to her. All she's done is make popular a difficult-to-enunciate catchphrase.
I think you also need to check a dictionary for the meaning of the word dictionary. I do not think it means what you think it means.
And Jen S is right: cooking with extra v (my own catchphrase - too bad I'm not a sexy woman with a cooking show to cram it down peoples' throats) completely ruins it. All the delicate flavour compounds which make it taste so darn good are destroyed with the application of heat.
Unlike some others here I actually like Rachel. I think she's cute, occasionally funny (especially when she's drunk) and has some decent ideas. But that EVOO thing...bah. It's just stupid.
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12-11-2006 @ 6:37PM
Seth Wilson said...
EVOO!? OMG! WTF! Ray Ray GO AWAY!
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12-11-2006 @ 8:25PM
Cary said...
Word Diggity:
I don't hate Ray either. I have also been cooking with olive oils for many years and agree she often misuses higher quality oils for her purposes. I don't think she ever claimed that it was a new discovery of hers, or that she introduced it to common use. My point was only that she did create a "successful" if unnecessary catch phrase and that it has as much right to be added to a modern dictionary as many other words and phrases. I stand by my definition of dictionary, and I think we actually agree on most points don't you?
(From American Heritage Dictionary)
dic·tion·ar·y (dĭk'shə-něr'ē) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. dic·tion·ar·ies
A reference book containing an alphabetical list of words, with information given for each word, usually including meaning, pronunciation, and etymology.
A book listing the words of a language with translations into another language.
A book listing words or other linguistic items in a particular category or subject with specialized information about them: a medical dictionary.
Computer Science
A list of words stored in machine-readable form for reference, as by spelling-checking software.
An electronic spelling checker.
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12-20-2006 @ 10:56PM
olive oil said...
An interesting fact the trademark office of Australia had been refusing the trademark of the word "EVOO" for use on olive oil for many years now as they classified it as a product description, just like "olive oil" (or "bread" for use on bread products, you get my point) which cant be trademarked.
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1-02-2007 @ 4:17AM
Will said...
Ray is so annoying. She acts like a 25 year old woman who has taken too many methamphetamines before the show. And the talking, goes on and on. Yap, Yap, Yap. The pointing at things. Trying to stay hip. Did she even go to chef's school? I always hear about her mom in some of the episodes I saw. EVOO. Wow, an actual word by a ditsy brunette trying to make money off of it. If I could make as much money saying "shit" all the time I'd be rich even more. Bottom line is Rachel Ray is an annoying little tramp, and it's all of the people that claim that she has the outgoing personality and somewhat good looks (which aren't really), and the attitude that is taking her where she is going. I look to it as all fake. Does she regurgitate after eating. She's so small, yet in the few shows that I've seen her in she eats more than 10 full grown men all together.
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1-02-2007 @ 11:38AM
Diana said...
Hey, all you SLAMMING Rachael Ray. Aren't you over doing it a tad...calling her ditsy, fake, obnoxious, & a TRAMP? I've got a grand idea TURN THE CHANNEL. Now what channel did you say YOUR TV show is on?
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1-05-2007 @ 4:32PM
B Bell said...
I think Rachael Ray has got it going on. So what if she created a "catch phrase". She's the one with the show and apparently everyone watches it. I say if you don't like it, don't torture yourself. There are lots of other channels to watch out there.
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1-12-2007 @ 5:04PM
Laurel said...
Ah, she's not bad.
I may not know much about cooking, but I do know my way around a kitchen and make a mean applesauce cake!
I have watched Rachel for a while. Although she does talk alot, she did teach me and my mom some new tricks (for example, smashing the garlic cloves with my knife to peal them easier).
There is a reason that she repeats meanings of abbreviations she makes. It is for the newcomers.
Those who have never watched the show might not know what E.V.O.O. stands for. They may ask "What is that? A new food something?" She then explains that it is extra virgin olive oil.
Her waist is small. Don't you think she excersizes, something many people don't do? Add to that the fact that cooking, especially cooking that fast, is excersize.
I believe her "outgoing personality" is because she is enjoying her work. Wouldn't you be happy when you are doing something you love, cooking, combining it with something you like (tv) and making money from it?
Her clothes aren't my style either, but I'm not her wardrobe person.
My only beef with Rachel Ray is her tendency to carry everything at once. Someday, she's gonna drop something breakable.
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1-17-2007 @ 9:54PM
Tina said...
RYAN....EXACTLY! Omg, my husband got me a RR cookbook (why, I don't know) and even in the damn book in every recipe that uses olive oil they put "EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)" just like that...how freakin annoying is that???? I had to stop reading it because I was so annoyed by it.
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