The Malaysian language authorities Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka (DBP) have announced that they would formally recognize gaming terms Buff and Nerf- adding their Malay equivalents to the official dictionary.

In an Instagram post on the official DBP account, the body officially recognized three game terms- Skin, Buff and Nerf.

Unfortunately, the Malay words are just Malaysian-ized versions of their English counterparts- being spelt Buf (Buff) and Nerf in Malay.

It should be noted that based on the Jawi spelling, Buf is pronounced Boof.

The only exception is Skin, which has been translated to Kekulit- just like the actual human organ it’s named after.

While these were announced on the DBP social media, the actual online dictionary itself has yet to make entries for them- meaning we’re also spared watching how they’d formally describe the meanings of having the scaling off a 6H increased and such.

It makes sense that the DBP would start to recognize gamer terms- the job of dictionaries has always been to describe language, not gatekeep it.

As Malaysians get more involved in esports, that means they need proper, official terms for common words- which would explain why they’ve been added to the lexicon.

Once the actual entries are made, that would also mean seeing them used in formal communications around esports.