Lexicographer at large
Lexicographer at large

Sue Butler AO

 
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LATEST BLOG

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state fossil
state fossil

Forgive me for my ignorance but I had no idea we had state fossils until the South Australian one popped up in the news this week.  This is the Spriggina, pictured above, named after Australian geologist Reg Sprigg. 

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New words

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That's AI!
That's AI!

It begins with the realisation that a lot of images and text on social media are generated by AI.  So if you see something you don’t believe, you say ‘That’s AI’ meaning it is false because it is generated by AI. 

ZG: 6

Everything AI is significant at the moment but this colloquialism is limited to the younger generation. At the moment.

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BEC scam
BEC scam

The BEC stands for Business Email Compromise.  This scam started in businesses where an employee would get an email, ostensibly from the CEO, asking them to transfer money to an account given in the email. 

ZG: 5

Sadly some people have had their lives turned upside down by this scam.

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space ball
space ball

This is the name given to metal spherical objects from space, the latest of which have washed up on a beach in Queensland. 

ZG: 4

The rubbish that we are generating in space is coming closer to home.

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Usage matters

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exuberant and exorbitant
exuberant and exorbitant

An interviewee on ABC radio commented on the exuberant taxes that added to the difficulties that farmers faced.  The notion of an exuberant tax was new to me (I would much prefer a demure and unassuming tax) but I find that confusion between exuberant and exorbitant has been happening for a while and grammar guides routinely comment on it.

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nonplussed
nonplussed

A website correspondent reported an odd use of nonplussed in the Guardian newspaper. It seemed to mean ‘unfazed’.

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monthslong
monthslong

I wondered if alot had gained any kind of respectability in the dictionary world so I checked the Oxford English Dictionary. There it was!

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Sue at TEDxSydney

"There are those who want the dictionary to censor aspects of language that they deem to be unsavoury or undesirable. But language moves on."

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Sue on the ABC's The Link

"I think with blasphemy you are actually going back to the 1600s where if you took the name of God in vain, that would produce the kind of strong reaction that we have to taboo words today.

Those sorts of taboos are losing their force and the F word, I think, would be regarded as still an emphatic colloquialism, but a colloquialism, not a taboo word."

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