Lexicographer at large
Lexicographer at large

Sue Butler AO

 
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Odd pronunciations

A subscriber has sent in a bundle of queries relating to pronunciations which seem to be perversely avoiding the obvious.

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New words

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ding ding

Scambling (scam + gambling) is a broad term for any fraudulent online gambling.  Speculating on crypto currencies is described as a form of scambling.  The particular type of scambling that has become the scourge of remote Indigenous communities is one that they have called ding ding because of the sound of pokie machines used in the game.

ZG: 5

Not exactly a mainstream term but the effects of gambling in Indigenous communities is a major concern.

rustout

This is the feeling of frustration experienced as a result of boredom with one’s work.  It is the opposite of burnout where you have been super stressed and worked harder than any mere mortal should.

ZG: 4

People like to play around with a word and create variations. Burnout is here to stay. I’m not sure that rustout will hang around for long.

potato mop-top

It sounds cute — a potato plant with a mop-top look— but the mop-top is created from stunted foliage in the plant caused by the potato mop-top virus (PMTV).  The tubers below the ground have stained rings or arcs in the vegetable flesh. 

ZG: 4

I’m sure in Tasmania the frequency of use is high.

Usage matters

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based on or based off

Particles are the little words that we used to class as prepositions.  Goodness knows what they are called now.   When they are used in conjunction with verbs, they fuse with the verb  to create  a compound verb with a new meaning. 

batted and battered

The starting point is bat meaning ‘a stout piece of wood’ which surprisingly has an uncertain origin.  It might be a French borrowing, it might be Old English but borrowed from French, it might be Celtic, it might be coined from the sound the stick makes.  It is followed closely by batter to hit repeatedly which is a French borrowing.  The two are obviously linked.

five and two

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."