These are new words or phrases that have caught my eye. My definition of a new word is one which is not in the Macquarie Dictionary online.
Some words seem to have more significance than others in terms of reflecting changes in the Australian culture, so I will give each word a Zeitgeist rating (ZG) within a range of 1-10.
If you disagree with the rating that I give, please argue your case in the comment field provided.
I would love you to contact me if you have made any new word discoveries of your own.
Remember when calculators became popular. The education authorities and parents feared that children would lose the ability to do maths in their heads because they had become reliant on calculators. This was true.
ZG: 9
This possible effect of AI will be a topic for discussion for some time to come.
Read MoreThere are various characteristics in a man that are green flags for any woman seeking a relationship with him. If a bloke ticks all these boxes he is a green flag man.
ZG: 5
There should be a thesaurus category for all the terms that have been used over the centuries by women to designate a desirable man, and men to designate a desirable woman.
Read MoreThe Cambridge Dictionary has recently included funga as a headword with the meaning ‘all the fungi that grow in a particular area or a particular period in time’.
ZG: 3
Sadly only a few fungi enthusiasts will be taking on this word.
Read MoreIf only Christian de Neuvillette had had AI he wouldn’t have had to ask Cyrano de Bergerac to write his love letters to Roxane for him, and life wouldn’t have got complicated.
ZG: 4
In the world of dating apps this is no doubt well known.
Read MoreAre all -gates post Watergate to some extent manufactured? Self-conscious -gates? This one certainly is, but it is now embedded in Australian politics.
ZG: 5
Politically alive for a brief period but now overtaken by events.
Read MoreA serious campaign to maximise your good looks can now be described as looksmaxxing. Whatever you wish to max out can be combined with -maxxing, a new productive suffix.
ZG: 4
Popular with Gen Z but a mystery to everyone else.
Read MoreThis is the latest rule devised by the governing body of Australian Rules football. It requires a free kick to be given against the last player to touch the ball before it crosses the boundary line between the two 50 metre arcs.
ZG: 5
One of these arcane rules that matters tremendously to AFL followers.
Hotly discussed in AFL circles at the moment.
Read MoreSmart glasses is the general term for eyewear that has a computer built into the frames. Audio glasses or hearingglasses have wearable audio tech — speakers and microphones for the reception of phone calls and music.
ZG: 6
It is the use of smart glasses to invade other people’s privacy that has everyone worried.
Read MoreApparently the Millennials and Gen X who spend their lives on digital devices and suffer digital burnout as a consequence find relief in analog activities of the sort that their grandmothers did as day-to-day routine.
ZG: 7
Charming to see the younger generation taking up quilting and crocheting.
Read MoreIt 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreWe all understand the value of physical fitness. Now we have to consider that we should attend to our cognitive fitness.
ZG: 4
This is an item of professional jargon that is filtering through to the mainstream.
Read MoreThis is not just weariness caused by constant scrolling but the depression, ennui and anxiety that the scroller is left with as a result of what has become a kind of addiction.
ZG: 4
Recognition of this as a form of addiction has brought more serious attention to treatment for it.
Read MoreThe bush doof has been with us for some time and is well covered in the dictionary. It is ‘an outdoor dance party, usually held in a remote location, and featuring electronic music. The bush doof is new.
ZG: 7
The bush doof is amazingly popular. I like the progression from bush doof to book doof.
Read MoreAs we know, social media platforms are extremely reluctant to ban users, partly from ideological, partly from commercial reasons. If they find a post with content that is so bad that they have to do something, then they would prefer to shadow ban the account rather than outright ban it.
ZG: 8
With the focus on the social media platforms at the moment, jargon like this is becoming well known and understood.
Read MoreThere has been a surge in the creation of pump tracks over the last couple of years so it follows that there is a growing familiarity with them.
ZG: 4
Incredibly familiar to those who engage in the sport and not at all familiar to those who don’t.
Read MoreWe used to discuss the economy, but a check of the dictionary reveals that that single economy has split into a number of identified economies, such as the gig economy, the blue economy, the attention economy. The latest of these is the creative economy.
ZG: 5
Perhaps putting a label on this group will help the least commercial among them to make a living.
Read MoreThis word was coined by the Australian author and communications consultant,Ed Coper, as the title for his book which has the subtitle How social media outrage ruined everything. His argument is that people who wish to manipulate us have found that the way to get our attention on social media is to make us angry.
ZG: 8
Current discussions on how social media is affecting society at large make this relevant.
ZG: 7
Discussions about our increasingly divided community and the role that social media plays in this has made this word resonate with the general public.
Read More
