Football legend, Pele, enters dictionary as adjective for ‘unique’

Pele, the nickname of the late football legend, has officially become synonymous with “exceptional, incomparable, unique”.

The Portuguese-language Michaelis dictionary, one of the most popular in Brazil, added “pele” as a new adjective to its online edition.

The inclusion came after a campaign by the Pele Foundation to honour the football star gathered more than 125,000 signatures.

Pele died in December 2022 at the age of 82.

The only player to have won the World Cup three times, he is widely considered to be the best footballer in history.

During his playing career spanning two decades, he scored a record 1,281 goals with Brazilian club Santos, Brazil’s national team, and the New York Cosmos.

READ ALSO: Ronaldo: Goodbye ‘eternal King Pelé’

He ended his playing days at New York Cosmos and retired from football in 1977.

Since his death from complications from colon cancer, his former club, Santos, sports channel SporTV and the Pele Foundation had been pressing for the football star’s name to be recognised with its own entry in the dictionary.

On Wednesday, the publishers behind Michaelis dictionaries announced the word would be included in the digital edition of their Portuguese-language dictionary immediately and in the printed version once the next edition was published.

The entry read: “pe.lé adj. That or someone who is out of the ordinary, who or who by virtue of their quality, value or superiority cannot be equalled to anything or anyone, just like Pelé, nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), who is considered the greatest athlete of all time; exceptional, incomparable, unique.”

The Pele Foundation, a charitable organisation created to preserve the player’s legacy, said it was a fitting tribute to “the king”.

“The expression already used to refer to someone who is the best at what they do has been (made eternal) on the pages of the dictionary!” it tweeted.

The Star