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.
To fasten up is a new compound verb that has moved from a computer context to general language. We can expect more fastening up in the future.
ZG: 5
The notion of fasten meaning ‘to increase the speed of’ rather than ‘to attach or fix’ seems slightly shocking, but I am surprised by how quickly I can get used to it.
Read MoreThe sacrifice paddock is one way of dealing with the fact that in drought sheep will graze land down to bare earth, but increasingly the preferred option is the droughtlot.
ZG: 8
With the number and severity of droughts increasing, we can expect new strategies to emerge for deaiing with it.
Read MoreThe deep fake is insidious because computer technology now provides techniques for seamlessly inserting contrived audio or video into real audio or video, the final result being apparently completely authentic. I notice that mainstream news publishers are now people return to them as trustworthy sources.
ZG: 8
A world we cannot distinguish fact from fiction is extremely disturbing.
Read MoreWe want to ensure our privacy online while acknowledging that the big data obtained there can be very useful. Differential privacy is the system that keeps the privacy of the individual by introducing random noise into the data.
SG: 5
This is an important concept but it is not something that the average person will be discussing over the dinner table. It is a piece of techie jargon.
Read MoreI think this is an instance of an Australian TV scriptwriter pulling in an Americanism as a bit of colloquial bling.
ZG: 1
Read MoreThis sounds like something in an ad for Persil. Are your clouds brighter? If not get them Persil-washed!
ZG: 4
At the moment it is just one of a number of bright ideas, but if it becomes a real measure for saving the reef, then the frequency of the word could increase markedly.
Read MoreIt is perfectly possible that play whack-a-mole will take off but at the moment it has low frequency in Australian English. And indeed, it has popped up again (30 July 2018) with Malcolm Turnbull saying ‘the government has to treat Labor’s lies like “whack-a-mole”.’
ZG: 2
Read MoreThis word seems to be instantly at home, at least in the speech of younger Australians.
ZG: 5
Read MoreOver the last decade we have seen the arrival of many devices designed to help our fauna cross main roads safely.
Read MoreThe dark kitchen is not a kitchen that serves a restaurant in which diners come to eat. There are no customers, just delivery couriers taking meals to people who have ordered by app.
ZG: 6
An interesting new term but probably not one that the general public encounters.
Read MoreThis is a new branch of science which combines biology and genetic engineering to create completely new artificial products.
ZG: 6
A brave new world indeed! But not yet a term that we all recognise.
Read MoreScott Morrison is our first Pentacostal prime minister, espousing a brand of religion that suits the aspirations of Western capitalism.
ZG: 7
Read MoreThis is a sad term that has come into our lexicon. It is the name given to a dissociative syndrome producing a state of catatonia in the sufferer, and usually the consequence of psychological trauma.
ZG: 10
Read MoreA chip implant is a particular kind of bio-implant which has in it a smart chip (of the kind you normally have in a device or a plastic card) that relies on near field communication to act.
ZG: 7
Read MoreGiven that there is considerable enthusiasm for keeping people in their own homes as they grow older, the need for the elderly sitter will only increase.
ZG: 7
Read MoreIn the open banking system financial information is networked and accessed through communications software to improve access to it for all parties.
ZG: 4
Read MoreThis is, literally, a house in which things grow, but the things that grow in a grow house are the rather special plants called marijuana.
ZG: 6
Read MoreThe term kangatarian first appeared in 2010 and seems to have had some currency ever since. You may well have thought that it would disappear as a joke word for a food fad but kangatarians may be here to stay.
ZG: 4
Read MorePrecariat is a somewhat more recent coinage than precarity but both of them are uncommon. Certainly my spellchecker rejects them both.
ZG: 2
Read MoreBlazar is derived from quasar. Could this be the beginning of a new set of words for types of quasars?
ZG: 2
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