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 virtual hospital is an organisation that monitors patients who stay in their own homes, providing information to the hospital about their state of health by means of digital devices and telehealth.
ZG: 6
The term virtual hospital is a novelty at the moment but it is probably here to stay.
Read MoreAs a protection against the possible transfer of infectious diseases from animals to humans, we now have the animal disease detective who combines the skills or a vet with the training of a police detective.
ZG: 4
This is a very specialised job but one that suddenly seems very important.
Read MoreSydney may be getting a drone light show at the end of this year instead of the traditional fireworks. The reason for this is the cost of fireworks and the amount of pollution they put in the air.
ZG: 4
This may have a surge in popularity come the next New Year’s Eve celebrations. Who knows what form they will take but exploding a lot of fireworks may not seem like a good idea.
Read MoreWe have come a long way in our understanding of the gamut of human sexuality. The latest in this series is the demisexual, a person who experiences a sexual attraction only towards a person with whom they have established a strong bond.
ZG: 5
This is a term that would still need explanation every time you used it. It is unfortunately misleading because an intuitive analysis would give you ‘half sexual’, which is not what it is at all.
Read MoreWhy a woman would want to go back to the lifestyle and culture of 1950s Australia I do not know. But apparently some women do.
ZG: 5
A movement that has not gained huge traction with the community yet. Let’s hope it stays on the margins.
Read MoreThe Ro is the reproduction number or measure of how infectious a disease is in a population which has no resistance to it, which is why we are just hearing about it now.
ZG: 5
This is a specialist term but it is being used in mainstream communications from specialists so we are becoming more familiar with it.
Read MoreCOVID-19 has required us to understand the workings of a bell curve. If the number of cases of infection increases rapidly we have a bell curve that rises steeply with a large number of cases at the peak of the curve.
ZG: 10
The necessity to flatten the curve - with either meaning - is one that confronts us on a daily basis.
Read MorePlasma therapy is not new — it has been mostly a medical tool in the world of sports medicine.
ZG: 5
Treatments for COVID-19 are being sought diligently. This is one line of investigation.
Read MoreA she-cession is a recession in which women are more greatly affected than men. The COVID-19 recession is an instance of a she-cession whereas the Great Depression was a he-cession.
ZG: 6
Analysing the fallout of the economic chaos caused by COVID-19 is necessary, but this set of terms has a slightly artificial feel to it.
Read MoreThis has been a change in tactics and style on the part of China. The new sharply aggressive style has been termed Wolf Warrior diplomacy.
ZG: 8
Whatever the reasons for this it is something that Australia is going to have to deal with from now on. Channelling Trump is not going to help.
Read MoreIn 2015 Bill Gates gave a TED talk in which he argued that the war we had to fear in the future was the one waged on us by some microbe for which we were utterly unprepared. He proposed that we should be conducting germ war games in which we improved our approach to such an attack.
ZG: 6
We have to get out of the woods with the real thing before we start playing pretend games with germs. Perhaps we will remember and be more attentive in the future.
Read MoreThis is an anti-malarial drug, used for over 50 years in treating malaria. It was suggested that it might be effective in fighting the COVID-19 virus, a suggestion enthusiastically taken up by Donald Trump but less enthusiastically by his medical advisors who pointed out that there was no research to prove the case one way or the other.
ZG: 6
I thought this one would come and go quickly but it lingers on. Every now and then Trump makes some new pronouncement on it that brings it into the media again.
Read MoreThis is a protected area within which people can travel, either from one country to another or within a small group of countries which are thought to have controlled the COVID-19 outbreak.
ZG: 8
More of these will appear and will be warmly welcomed. The risk is always of course that the virus will reappear in which case the bubble will burst.
Read MoreThese are painful lesions on the toes which appear to be a symptom of the coronavirus. They range in colour from red to purple and are accompanied by a tingling, burning feeling.
ZG: 5
There are a number of secondary effects of COVID-19 which are being reported. These are reminiscent of chilblains and just as uncomfortable, I suspect.
Read MoreContact tracing for people who test positive to SARS-COV-2 involves stepping back through a network of people to find the original source of the disease. All pathways lead to this person who is patient zero.
ZG: 7
With the possibility of clusters of infected people occurring as we ease up on restrictions, the search for patient zero in each case will become increasingly important.
Read MoreThe idea of the pandemic drone is not to pick out an individual but to detect a pattern within a city. Detecting a cluster of such cases can help in the fight to keep the virus at bay when some of the constraints on society are relaxed.
ZG: 4
Another one of the hi-tech solutions to our COVID-19 problem, but not one that seems to be much in use as yet.
Read MoreIn the absence of any vaccine or treatment, being able to identify outbreaks of the disease and act quickly to prevent further spread is the best defence we have.
ZG: 7
We are going to need this in place very soon so there will be a lot more discussion about how it works and what kind of results it give us.
Read MoreThis is the habit, newly acquired for some as a result of the coronavirus lockdown, of snacking at fairly regular intervals during the day, possibly to relieve stress or boredom.
ZG: 4
While we are all aware of the increased snacking that is going on and the tendency to fatten the curve (of our stomachs), we probably think that we have more to worry about than the disapproval of dieticians.
Read MoreThis is the common short version of human challenge trial which could be the shortcut to testing a possible vaccine for SARS-COV-2.
ZG: 6
How to prove that a vaccine works is a bit of a problem. We are just reaching the point of human testing with a few vaccines so this is increasingly relevant.
Read MoreThis word dates back to a book with the title The Climate Diet: How You Can Cut Carbon, Cut Costs, and Save the Planet, written by Johnathan Henry Harrington and published in 2008. So the idea has been around for over a decade but it seems to have gained currency in the last six months or so.
ZG: 6
There is much speculation that as we emerge from COVID restrictions we may shape our world a little differently. Making our diet climate-friendly may be a one of the adjustments we could include.
Read More
