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.
This is a bit of American slang that we have taken a while to adopt. It dates back to the 1960s in the US where it seems particularly popular with speakers of Black American English.
ZG: 6
Despite the problems with its pronunciation, this is a slang term that has a cheerful appeal.
Read MoreFractional employment is an employment structure similar to freelancing but not limited to a particular project in the way that freelancing usually is.
ZG: 5
A jargon term used by HR people but one that may increase in frequency as work styles change.
Read MoreThe liquid biopsy has the advantage that the sample is a blood sample, so fairly easy to extract.
ZG: 3
A medical term but one that could be of considerable importance to some people.
Read MoreThis is the spreading of ideas through social media, usually through images and tweets that attack a particular person, organisation, political party, etc., and that bring about a change in public opinion.
ZG: 9
Increasingly we are becoming aware of the threats to society that exist on unregulated social media. Since we also seem to be powerless to do anything about it, we can expect meme warfare to continue.
Read MoreNarrowcasting has become a term in politics for the transmission of political messages to the particular groups in society that will respond well to them.
ZG: 7
Every election produces a new set of terms to meet a different style of politics delivered in a different way. The crossover from marketing to politics is familiar. This is one of the new marketing terms to make the transition.
Read More
There is general agreement that we must develop technologies that can save us from the accumulation of greenhouse gases. One method of doing this is to suck carbon out of the air.
ZG: 3
There are too few carbon suckers around for this to rate highly as yet. But the day may come …
Read MoreAt first I thought this might be one stage worse than a food coma, that feeling of indolence that comes over you after a heavy meal. But no, a food shock is the shock to the whole system of food production.
ZG: 7
This is a shock that we may well be experiencing more often. Certainly it is more common to see stories in the media relating to the high prices of fruit and vegetables and other produce as a result of fire, flood, and drought, all of which can now happen simultaneously in Australia.
Read MoreEjiao (pronounced [e-jow]) is a gelatin derived from the hide of a donkey, and used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of bleeding, dizziness, insomnia and a dry cough.
ZG: 4
The things that people need and which initiate trade are sometimes surprising. To think that our wild donkeys could be worth a fortune in China!
Read MoreThe latest in the slowly growing set of words formed with the ending -veillance is dataveillance, the monitoring of digital data relating to someone’s activities online.
ZG: 5
A piece of jargon, perhaps, although since we are now all so involved with activities online, we perhaps will become more familiar with it.
Read MoreWe 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.
Read MoreThose 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.
Read MoreIn 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreThere 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read More
