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 mixture of woody hemp fibre from inside the hemp stalk combined with lime and water. The resulting mix is packed into a wooden frame and tamped down to make a wall.
ZG: 4
I don’t think hempcrete has reached the popularity that mud bricks had in the 1980s but who knows? It may take off.
Read MoreThe human book is person that you can borrow from the human library who will tell you the story of their life.
ZG: 4
This is not a common experience yet but it is one that seems to be on the rise.
Read MoreThis is the continuing drain on the mental and physical resources of a mother after her child is born. Mothers blame lack of sleep, and, in general, the need to set their own needs aside to keep up with the demands of bringing up a child.
ZG: 4
Not a common term as yet but one that will strike a chord with mothers of small children.
Read MoreAncestry tourism involves travelling to the land of your ancestors and seeing what you can find out to add to information for your family history.
ZG: 7
The popularity of researching family histories aided by a sudden wealth of resources that can be made available to the general public means that ancestry tourism will be increasingly popular.
Read MoreA black ops brigade or black ops crew is a small group of volunteers, usually people who live in a distract threatened by bushfire, who band together with whatever resources they have to supplement the work of the official firefighting brigade.
ZG: 7
At the moment they are probably few in number but, as we experience more hot summers with bushfires, we are likely to hear more about them.
Read MoreThe Voice to Parliament is proposed as a new representative body that sits alongside the Federal Parliament which is then obliged to listen to what Indigenous people have to say about the laws under consideration in parliament that affect them.
ZG: 10
This is an extremely important topic of political conversation that will be ongoing until some resolution is achieved.
Read MoreThis is a word derived from catfishing. The idea is that most women can’t resist a man with a dog.
ZG: 6
A coinage that will amuse those who visit dating sites and are generally at home in the online world of romance.
Read MoreThis is the name given to the povety experienced by women and girls who are unable to access resources during their menstruation period, because of lack of finances or lack of facilities provided at schools and workplaces.
ZG: 4
There is a global movement to eliminate period poverty which has given the expression frequency in some political circles.
Read MoreThe quiet Australians are the people nominated by Scott Morrison as his support base, the people who agree with his policies but don’t make a huge fuss the way the noisy elite do about what THEY think is right for the country.
ZG: 9
This expression was immediately picked up as one of significance in Australian politics this year. It is likely to be around for some time to come.
Read MoreForest bathing is a kind of Japanese fusion bushwalking, Australian-style but with a Japanese aesthetic, so that we enter the bush in a mindful way to enhance our health and wellbeing.
ZG: 3
There has been a strong Japanese influence in Australian cuisine and design, but it is probably still a minority interest.
Read MoreThis is a put-down from a young person to an old person who is demonstrating that they are out of touch with the contemporary world. The older person doesn’t have to be an actual baby boomer, just someone over forty.
ZG: 8
This is one of those internet memes which has gone around the world. The divide between the older and younger generations is sharper than it has ever been before. This captures it neatly.
Read MoreThis is miniature brain created in a laboratory by taking stem cells from the body which then develop functioning neural networks. The formal name for a mini-brain is a cerebral organoid, an organoid being an artificial organ grown in vitro.
ZG: 6
This is probably the stuff of research articles at the moment but as as mini-brains progress the general public may take a keener interest.
Read MoreThis is a downing of tools to support action on climate change. The beginnings of this action to confront the climate emergency were the school strikes inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
ZG: 9
The climate strike which I attended this year felt like just the beginning of bigger and better and more insistent strikes to come.
Read MoreThe term climate emergency is being used in preference to climate change, and global heating rather than global warming. Warming sounds quite pleasant, whereas heating is clearly bad. An emergency is much more alarming than a simple change which could be good, could be bad.
ZG: 9
This is definitely one that is in common currency and here for the long haul.
Read MoreThe telenovela remains focused on one storyline. The telenovela runs for one to two years and then it is done.
ZG: 5
Media jargon rather than common knowledge. However if the genre becomes popular it might become more mainstream. We wait to see Las Rosas!
Read MoreIt has become the practice of Chinese emigrants to send their very young children back to China to be looked after by their extended family while the parents are establishing themselves in their new country. These children are referred to as satellite babies.
ZG: 3
Not high frequency in Australia but we are becoming aware of the practice. More common in North America where the term originated.
Not high frequency in Australia but we are becoming aware of the practice.
Read MoreThis is the sense of guilt that some of us have now in relation to our air travel, an activity that is one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse emissions.
ZG: 7
Australians are probably slower to pick up on this particular guilt than the Europeans because our need for air travel is greater.
Read MoreA threenager is a three-year-old who behaves like a teenager, has attitude and wilfulness and a total disregard of reason.
ZG: 7
The terrible twos has been such a thing for so long with parents that it is surprising to find the this new term competing with it. Possibly labels help parents to cope.
Read MoreA spell of hot weather at sea is regarded as a heatwave if it is above what is usual for the season and goes beyond five days.
ZG: 6
We will no doubt become more aware of these as they increase in frequency and we see the effects.
Read MoreThere has been a revival of twee pop more recently. Its followers, now mostly in the U.S., are seemingly unaware of the derogatory overtones of twee in the 1980s, unaware that you always said it with a slight sneer.
ZG: 5
The most interesting feature of twee pop is the shift in meaning of twee. It remains to be seen if this is true of its mainstream use as well.
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