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.
We are all familiar now with the graphic of the coronavirus with its red bits that stick out. These are the protein spikes which attach to receptors on human cells, a process which is a bit like opening a door to the human cell and allowing the virus to enter.
ZG: 7
The protein spike seems to be discussed often, particularly of course in relation to the genetic vaccine.
Read MoreThis is a concept for the care of people with dementia that keeps them safe while allowing a certain degree of independent living. The idea was pioneered in the Netherlands but we have our first dementia village now in Hobart.
ZG: 5
Low frequency at the moment but possibly one that will become better known as we develop more of these villages.
Read MoreThe safety pee is an act of urination for which you don’t actually feel the need. You do, however, find it reassuring to have emptied your bladder before undertaking an activity which might take some time.
Read MoreIn the days of COVID-19 we are tiring more often and more easily because of the all the small decisions we have to make in terms of how we manage our lives.
ZG: 5
It seems true that more people are complaining of greater fatigue than usual. This is an interesting explanation for it.
Read MoreSometimes legislation enacted by Parliament can have in it a Henry VIII clause which allows the executive to alter the law by regulation. The legislative assembly has no control over the form that such secondary legislation might take although at some later date it can disallow it.
ZG: 7
An obscure but important piece of parliamentary lexicon which has popped up with sudden contemporary relevance.
Read MoreThis is an economic backlash to globalisation. We have been splitting hairs over sovereignty for some time, dividing it into political sovereignty, legal sovereignty, and popular sovereignty to name a few.
ZG: 7
This is a term that is part of a debate that can only increase in intensity.
Read MoreThis is a new offence which has been created in Victoria. It makes a person who kills another with a firearm but is not convicted of murder nonetheless liable for 25 years in prison.
ZG: 6
This is a coinage that is here to stay and that will cause some debate in the community as to whether it is effective or not.
Read MoreThis is a person who has experienced COVID-19 and recovered after the usual two weeks, but then has unaccountably suffered a return of the symptoms of the disease, sometimes along with other new symptoms.
ZG: 6
There are not so many of these but they add to our knowledge of the forms that the disease can take.
Read MoreThis was the title of a book written by John Quiggin, an Australian economist, and published in 2010. It had the subtitle How Dead Ideas Still Walk Among Us.
ZG: 5
A bit of specialist jargon from the economists, but quite amusing and catchy.
Read MoreThe sommelier is a very special person in a restaurant who has the knowledge and expertise to guide customers through the wine list, recommending particular wines to accompany their choice of food. The COVID sommelier is somewhat different.
ZG: 5
An attempt at humour within a small circle of struggling restaurateurs.
Read MoreThis is a term used to smear Chinese efforts to help their friends and neighbours by sending medical supplies, particularly face masks and hand sanitiser. The implication is that any help from China merely disguises some nefarious purpose.
ZG: 7
Given the low level to which our relations with China have sunk, I expect to hear this used more frequently. It would be nice if someone came up with a catchy name for America’s hoarding of COVID treatments.
Read MoreThe most exciting development in the area of vaccines in the last ten years has been the genetic vaccine, that is, a vaccine that relies on introducing part of the DNA or RNA of a virus into a human cell which then replicates part of the virus protein from the DNA or RNA code, producing an immune response.
ZG: 7
I expect that we will be hearing a lot more about this and that we will all be much more knowledgeable about vaccines than we have been in the past.
Read MoreThere has been much speculation that there will be another baby boom caused by COVID-19 restrictions and isolation which will produce a spike of coronababies.
ZG: 6
I can see this one staying with us. ‘I was a corona baby’ people will say in years to come.
Read MoreCoronacoma is the state of stupefaction that the individual may experience, of the state of the economy which resists all attempts to bring it out of economic hibernation.
ZG: 6
This is another attempt at humour to see us through the COVID experience.
Read MoreThis is not something to recharge the flagging energy of the community, but a battery which solar power producers in the community can share as a storage device.
ZG: 5
There are not many of these yet but there numbers will probably increase while we continue to search for better batteries.
Read MoreThis expression has been used to characterise the response of an ageing WASP to anything that is new and different, particularly when coming from the younger generation.
ZG: 6
I don’t think this expression captured the media attention that was given to OK boomer! so it has not achieved the same popularity.
Read MoreAmong the most favoured possible treatments for COVID-19 is convalescent serum. This is serum taken from the blood of patients who have recovered from the coronavirus.
ZG: 5
A treatment is all very well but it is the vaccine that has everyone’s attention.
Read MoreInformation overload is looking at the amount of information coming in, too much for anyone to be able to handle. Infobesity is looking at the excessive consumption of information by an individual.
ZG: 5
This is a feature of all our lives and is particularly painful in the context of COVID-19 but it is a slightly forced coinage.
Read MoreThere are many versions of the quarantini but the there are some basic ideas which shape the nature of the cocktail which began life as the martini you have in quarantine.
ZG: 6
This is another example of black humour, designed along with the drink to keep our spirits up during The Rona. It will probably fade as the joke wears thin, and definitely fade when the crisis is over.
Read MoreThis is a rather bleakly humorous response from the younger generations to the fact that COVID-19 is apparently hitting the older generation hard and that in the main it is the people over 70 who die from the virus.
ZG 6
It had currency while people digested the news that the disease was more commonly affecting the older generation. The black humour was I think a way of coping with the whole situation. In the same way we reduced coronavirus to ‘the rona’ because being flippant made us feel more in control.
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