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.
The term anchor baby was coined in the U.S in the early 1990s and refers to a child born to an immigrant mother who is illegally in the U.S. without citizenship.
ZG: 5
So far Peter Dutton is on his own in adopting this term from American English. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Read MoreThere are a growing number of solo dwellers who maintain that they can have a large number of friends and an active social life, and yet, when they choose, have the luxury of being on their own and doing whatever they want to do whenever they feel like doing it.
ZG: 7
This one is of interest in social terms. The bold statement that living alone is a lifestyle choice and a good thing is something new.
Read MoreOver the past decade we have become much more knowledgeable about Japanese wines. Now it is the Korean rice wine, soju, that is becoming popular.
ZG: 5
The endless search for novelty in food and drink, and perhaps increased contact with Korea, has brought soju to our attention.
Read MoreThe idea of the passive house is that it is airtight and very well insulated with no breaks or gaps where heat can escape.
ZG: 7
Not a household word yet, not even a passive household word, but one that we could hear more frequently in the future as we find any way we can to cope with the new environment.
Read MoreLooping is process for automatically regulating insulin delivery from a pump, using an app which reads a glucose level monitor and then adjusts the supply of insulin in accordance with the changing readings.
ZG: 4
This is a term which is known to a relatively small group of people. It has surfaced because of the particular difficulty they are in.
Read MoreThe idea of the double tap is that the shooter takes aim and fires the gun, and then immediately takes aim again, and fires again.
ZG: 4
Sadly we are picking up more and more of this kind of military jargon.
Read MoreThe term big business has led to a related set of big words such as big tobacco, big pharma, and big sugar. These are now joined by big tech.
ZG: 9
Big tech are big in size and big in influence. They affect our lives hugely. We will be discussing big tech for some time to come.
Read MoreWe are in economic circumstances now where the ten-year bond offers less than the one-year bond. Thus the graph shows an inverted yield curve, high at one year and dropping to a low at ten.
ZG: 5
Probably more people now know this obscure piece of finance jargon because it is being trumpeted as an indicator of a recession to come.
Read MoreAttention hacking is the development of innovative ways to grab the attention of people as they go online.
ZG: 4
Yet another marketing term which may be limited in use. Nevertheless we are all conscious of how the strategies for grabbing our attention have shifted,
Read MoreThere is now something of a track record for deliberate lighting of fires in wheelie bins, either for warmth or to breath in the fumes and get a very dangerous high.
ZG: 8
If something is common enough to give rise to a metaphorical use, then it has won recognition in the community.
Read MoreThe Pioppi diet has apparently been popular since 2017, and is supposed to be based on the traditional diet of the people of Pioppi, a small town in southern Italy.
ZG: 8
Diets are endlessly fascinating. Some of them may even last more than two seconds but while they have that brief moment of fame they are very popular.
Read MoreThis is software which enables a business to falsify the details of a transaction maintained by the point-of-sale software in order to cheat on tax payments.
ZG: 4
The ATO also comments that Australians regard cheating on their tax as a national sport so this is technology jargon and the subject matter is of little interest.
Read MoreThe bin cocky or sulphur-crested cockatoo has learnt how to lift the lid on the wheeliebin to access the food inside.
ZG: 7
This is not yet a common phenomenon but if the smart bin-lifting cockatoos teach more and more of their comrades, as apparently they do, then we will find another reason to be cross with them.
Read MoreThis is a genre of electronic music made using the programmable sound chips of vintage video games, found in the machinery of game arcades, in computers and in video game consoles.
ZG: 3
This is very much a niche genre although its followers are rapt in it. When the next James Bond movie is done to chip music, it may take off.
Read MoreInside baseball refers to esoteric knowledge known only to experts in the field.
ZG: 6
There is a need to distinguish between ordinary knowledge and expert knowledge. This flags the world of the specialist quite neatly so it may stick around. It is certainly on the rise at the moment.
Read MoreThis lily pad has been handed to us from the US where they developed a strategy for developing small bases on islands scattered throughout the Pacific. Lots of lily pads in the big pond.
ZG: 4
A bit of military jargon but if a lily pad comes to pass in Darwin it will start to mean something for us all.
Read MoreMicrolot coffee is made from beans with enhanced flavour found in small patches or microdots.
ZG: 5
Yes I know we love our coffee and will all get to taste and approve the microdot coffee but it is a low-frequency item.
Read MoreA micro lot is a piece of land for sale which is only 80 square metres in size.
ZG: 8
This is yet another solution to the problem that no one can afford to buy a house, particularly young people or single people. This tiny house at least gets you started in the property market.
Read MoreThis is an Italian white wine grape variety with a long history. It was thought to be in the wine made by the Romans and called Apianum (loved by the bees).
ZG: 6
It took us a little while to get over the shock of not being able to use established names like champagne, claret, hock, moselle, etc., but once we recovered, we took to the world of varietal wines with gusto.
Read MoreThe concept of setting up a coffice in your local coffee shop with your laptop beside you and a cup of coffee in hand has been developing over the last decade.
ZG: 8
Almost any coffee shop will be home to a number of coffice workers these days.
Read More
