New words — Sue Butler — Lexicographer at large

Lexicographer at large

New Words

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.

consent guardian

consent guardian

We have witnessed the creation of the consent guardian, a person employed by a nightclub, bar or dance venue to oversee what is happening and be there to help someone who is feeling threatened in any way.

ZG: 7

The unicorn with the light-up help beacon is an appealing idea and an elegant solution to monitoring behaviour without being too much of a wet blanket. I suspect that we will have more consent guardians as owners and managers of venues do not want to be held accountable for the bad behaviour of attendees.

Food and drink, SocietySue ButlerMarch 11, 2019Comment

carer credit

carer credit

Those who are called upon to be carers for family members who are chronically sick or frail, or who are very young or very old, have to give up employment. This has repercussions for them in terms of their superannuation.

ZG: 7

This is probably a term that the carers in our society are familiar with but not one that has widespread currency. Let’s hope that efforts to implement this system make the term more widely known.

Sue ButlerMarch 11, 2019health, SocietyComment

pollination broker

pollination broker

In agriculture the role of the bees in fertilising the flowers is so important and the logistics of hiring hives at the critical moment is so complicated that a job has emerged for the pollination broker.

ZG: 5

This is a jargon word of a niche industry, and therefore not one that most of us would encounter, and yet the pollination broker is so important to our lives.

Environment, BusinessSue ButlerMarch 9, 2019Comment

scandal fatigue

scandal fatigue

The notion of fatigue as weariness and disenchantment with a particular issue or phenomenon dates back to the 1940s in America.

ZG: 8

The collection of fatigues that we have identified has been growing quite steadily for some time now, so I predict that there will be more fatigues to come, now that everyone is looking out for them.

PoliticsSue ButlerMarch 9, 2019Comment

woo

woo

The sceptics as a group have always opposed people attempting to promote a belief or practice with scientific basis. When they found an egregious case of unscientific mumbo-jumbo they would exclaim Wooooo!

ZG: 9

Apart from the appeal of this word, there is the likelihood that we will encounter more woomeisters peddling vast quantities of woo in the anti-science future.

ScienceSue ButlerMarch 9, 2019Comment

begpacker

begpacker

The backpacker has morphed into the begpacker, the backpacker who begs in the streets.

ZG: 5

The role that tourism plays in countries where both the economy and the culture are impacted by the visitors has always under question. The begpacker seems to be particularly upfront in taking advantage.

Travel, SocietySue ButlerMarch 2, 2019Comment

antinatalism

antinatalism

The world is full of suffering. It is our duty to reduce suffering. The simplest most effective way to not increase the total world suffering is not to procreate. It is better to stop the problem before it even starts. This is the fundamental tenet of antinatalism.

ZG: 4

I cannot believe that such a negative view of life will attract more than a fringe following.

Environment, SocietySue ButlerMarch 2, 2019Comment

bin chicken

bin chicken

There is a breed of humans who have taken on the bin chicken’s name. These are people who raid garbage bins for recyclable cans and bottles.

ZG: 9

I love the way that humans gave these birds this half-derogatory, half-affectionate name, and now it is being turned back onto the humans.

Colloquial, EnvironmentSue ButlerMarch 2, 2019Comment

femtech

femtech

This is not feminised technology but rather technology in the service of women.

ZG: 8

Ida Tin, the founder and CEO of the company CLUE, which produces a period-tracking app, is credited with coining the term femtech in 2013. It is reasonable to say that the word is here to stay.

BusinessSue ButlerFebruary 21, 2019Comment

GLD

GLD

This acronym applies to children who are gifted but have a learning disability, compounding the difficulty of meeting their needs in the classroom.

ZG: 7

This word will not have general currency but it will no doubt be an established word in educational jargon.

EducationSue ButlerFebruary 21, 2019twice exception, double labelledComment

lifestyle designer

lifestyle designer

The lifestyle designer is the person you ask to reshape your life.

ZG: 8

The notion of finding suitable employment in life has changed so much over the last thirty years that I really feel I would like to start over again. I think back to my first job taking the tea trolley around in an accountancy firm. Such a job and such a workplace would be inconceivable to the lifestyle designers and their protégés.

Business, SocietySue ButlerFebruary 21, 2019Comment

universal healthy reference diet

universal healthy reference diet

This is a table of the ideal consumption quantities of protein, carbohydrate, minerals, unsaturated oils, etc., which you then have to convert into what you buy at the shops so that the total calorie intake per day for an adult is 2500.

ZG: 9

I don’t usually pay much attention to the latest fashionable diet but this one is different. I have grave doubts that it can be implemented but it is obviously desirable that it should.

HealthSue ButlerFebruary 21, 2019Comment

brickbait

brickbait

The bricks-and-mortar retail shops have been feeling the pinch with more and more of their customers finding it easier to shop online. So they have devised strategies to entice customers to come back to the shop.

ZG: 5

The threat of online shopping to bricks-and-mortar retail is very real. Whether this is a permanent solution or just a bright idea along the way to whatever happens, we will have to wait and see.

marketingSue ButlerFebruary 21, 2019Comment

T-bone crash

T-bone crash

The more formal name is side impact collision or broadside accident.

ZG:4

I have encountered people who thought that if we took the word cancer out of the dictionary, the disease would stop in its tracks. Perhaps, on those lines, if we don’t put this one in, we will have fewer such accidents.

Colloquial, HealthSue ButlerFebruary 21, 2019side impact collison, broadside accidentComment

egg-timer test

egg-timer test

The egg-timer test is a sign that balancing career and maternity is a problem for women today.

ZG: 7

There are many stories about the disappointment experienced by women who have left it too late. This test is an expression of anxiety rather than a solution.

HealthSue ButlerFebruary 20, 2019Comment

wellderly

wellderly

The elderly are elderly people who enjoy good health. The word is, fairly obviously, a blend of well and elderly.

ZG:8

There are a lot of elderly people all of whom no doubt are hoping to be welderly.

HealthSue ButlerJanuary 6, 2019Comment

Canberra bubble

Canberra bubble

In politics the Westminster bubble and the Washington bubble predate the Canberra bubble by a couple of decades.

ZG: 7

We are likely to hear more about the Canberra bubble in the electioneering that awaits us.

PoliticsSue ButlerDecember 14, 2018Comment

L-plate

L-plate

L-plate leader, L-plate politician. These epithets have become a very Australian way of deriding our politicians.

ZG: 6

High marks for Australian connotations but low marks as just another bit of sloganeering emerging from Canberra.

Colloquial, PoliticsSue ButlerDecember 14, 2018Comment

sponge city

sponge city

There are many cities that can see the benefits of re-fitting their drainage systems to reduce water run-off and increase water storage.

ZG: 9

Given the intensity of the downpours that we have had recently in cities across Australia, and the ensuing chaos, I think that this is a concept that should rate highly.

EnvironmentSue ButlerDecember 14, 2018Comment

MaaS

MaaS

The dictionary already has IaaS (infrastructure as a service) and Saas (software as a service). This term, MaaS, stands for mobility as a service.

ZG: 4

An important concept but one that is perhaps a too technical to have much currency.

Internet, TechnologySue ButlerNovember 27, 2018Comment