Delia's Delight

Q. So Delia's in the dictionary now

A. Indeed. The new edition of the Collins English Dictionary has entered the noun Delia as a word in its own right. She's that famous - or ubiquitous. Case in point: note that you don't have to use her full name. Just say 'Delia' and everyone knows that you mean Ms Smith. (Mind you, do you actually know anyone else named Delia )

Q. So what does Delia mean

A. According to the Collins Dictionary it has a variety of meanings. 'Doing a Delia' is to make a 'Delia dish', that is making a dish from one of her recipes or producing a meal in the 'style of cooking of British cookery writer Delia Smith'.

There is also the 'Delia effect', which is what happens when millions seek out an ingredient or piece of equipment she has recommended: Delia is probably single-handedly responsible for the popularity of cranberries in this country, and her promotion of limes, lemongrass and omelette pans is legendary, almost bringing one pan manufacturer to its knees because it couldn't keep up with demand.

Q. How was it decided that she was eligible

A. It is extraordinary that someone so seemingly ordinary as Delia - she's even called Smith, though there's nothing wrong with that, as you'll realise if you look at the bottom of this piece - could have such a profound effect on the nation's eating habits. Perhaps it's because her recipes - famously - all work. Or maybe it's because both she and her food are just racy enough to be interesting to the unadventurously adventurous and just toned down enough to be acceptable to the more traditional British palate.

Whatever the reason, there's no doubting that she's had a major impact. A database of 418 million words of spoken and written English taken from television, books, conversations and newspapers found 700 references to Delia, and it was on this basis that Collins decided to include her in the dictionary.

Q. What does Delia have to say about it

A. According to the BBC, she commented: 'I think it's quite extraordinary. I've been doing recipes for about 30 years now and I suppose it's because I've been around a long time.' At least she didn't use it as an excuse to be catty about her fellow TV chefs as she did in 2000, when she described Antony Worral-Thompson as 'dreadful and repulsive' and wine buff Jilly Goolden as 'awful'. At the same time she also told the Daily Telegraph: 'I am not some prim, Brownie pack leader - in fact, I am a bit of a bitch.' Strange kind of publicity stunt, you might think.

Q. A few facts about Delia

A. The 59-year old published her first recipe in 1969, but her career really took off in the late 1970s and early 1980s when her How To Cook series was shown on BBC. Since then she's sold over 14 million books and bought a stake in Norwich City FC.

Q. Who else has got their name into the dictionary

Many people's names have ended up in the dictionary, frequently with the addition of -esque (Pythonesque - OK, not a single person, but you know what I mean - Kafkaesque) or -ian/-ean (Wagnerian, Wildean). Other than that, people have lent their names to things, such as the wellington or the davenport.

It is less usual, however, to find a name used as Delia's has been, that is in a conceptual way rather than as an adjective or the name of something specific - quisling, named for the Norwegian 5th columnist Vidkun Quisling during the Second World War is another example-or as a verb, such as to boycott.

Q. Boycott

A. Nothing to do with cricketer Geoffrey and the French legal system, but from the methods used in the 19th century by the Irish Land League against land agent Captain C.C. Boycott as a means of coercing him to reduce rents.

If you're a Delia fan go to http://www.deliaonline.com/home/home/ contenttype=register

if not, you might like http://www.spleenvent.org.uk/awards-chefs.html#whydelia

For more on Phrases & Sayings click here

By Simon Smith