“Pele,” arguably the best footballer in history, is now also an adjective.
On Wednesday, the word “pele” was added to the more than 167,000 words in the Michaelis Portuguese dictionary printed in Brazil.
For the world’s 265 million-odd Portuguese speakers, “pele” can now be used to denote something or someone extraordinary — the sense in which it is already employed informally in Brazil.
“The expression already used to refer to someone who is the best at what they do has been eternalized on the pages of the dictionary!” the Pele Foundation said on Instagram.
