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.
One way of ensuring that mass testing is being carried out is to require employers to test twenty-five per cent of their workforce each week so that, over the period of a month, the entire staff is tested. This is described as surveillance testing.
ZG: 6
There seems to be an attempt to distinguish between sentinel testing which is mass testing of small pockets in the community, and surveillance testing which occurs in workplaces.
Read MoreDuring the lockdown in Victoria, the residents of Melbourne were not allowed to travel into regional Victoria. There were various checkpoints where travellers were stopped and sent back if they had no valid reason for crossing the line.
ZG: 6
Victorians would probably rate this term as having high frequency and significance. The rest of the country is not so concerned with it.
Read MoreThere are two definitions for wedding puptials. In the first scenario an attendant looks after the impeccably groomed dog which is attending the wedding of its owner, and in the second the dogs are part of an elaborate fundraiser.
ZG: 5
It has novelty value but engages a small section of the population who have fur babies.
Read MoreTechnology has come to the aid of music students and examiners who can no longer meet to conduct an exam. The students can prepare for a video exam, more correctly known by the AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board) as a video repertoire exam.
ZG: 5
A concept which is a great significance to the small group of music students undertaking exams at the moment.
Read MoreVaccine diplomacy is a style of diplomacy which is focused on providing aid to countries to assist them in coping with the pandemic now and in obtaining the vaccine when and if it becomes available.
ZG: 7
This is a term that is likely to get more frequent use as we get closer to having a viable vaccine.
Read MoreThe vaccine-hesitant are the people who are always worried about taking vaccines, even if they go ahead and do it eventually, because they fear a bad reaction.
ZG: 5
I would expect this term to have more frequency at the point where a vaccine may eventuate and people have to make decisions.
Read MoreSome fatigues like battle fatigue are recognised psychological neuroses. Lockdown fatigue also has psychological overtones and has been analysed as resulting from the disruption of our routines or habits.
ZG: 9
Given the situation in Victoria this term has had a lot of exposure.
Read MoreA character in a movie or TV show will have what is called a race lift (sometimes racelift) when their race or ethnicity is changed in a version derived from the original.
ZG: 7
This is part of the ongoing discussion about issues to do with race, ethnicity and minority status, and so is a significant item in this context.
Read MoreThe basic version of virtual kidnapping doesn’t involve contact with the supposedly kidnapped person at all, although the ‘kidnapper’ might need to know a bit about them.
ZG: 5
The forms of extortion of money in a digital world seem to be endless.
Read MoreThis is what awaits a person who is coming out of lockdown, either a government-imposed lockdown or a self-imposed lockdown.
ZG: 9
The new COVID normal is referred to constantly at the moment, although I am not sure that we yet know what it is and if we have achieved it yet.
Read MoreTo hate-follow someone online is to spend time looking at their site or reading their blog just so that you can feel self-righteously scornful and indignant.
G: 5
This is more a word used by social media commentators rather than by the participants in hate-following. But it is a useful addition to the social media lexicon.
Read MoreThis term has been around for some months now. I thought I would hold off until the National Cabinet defined what comprised a COVID hotspot, but they found it all too hard so I will have to go it alone.
ZG: 9
The COVID hotspot remains a bone of contention between those who want to open up the economy and those who think that the only safe way to proceed is with a general lockdown.
Read MoreThe literal meaning of this is that a person cannot distinguish pitches and sings very much out of tune. A tone-deaf person is unwelcome in a choir. But it now has a metaphorical meaning.
ZG: 8
While being tone-deaf is better than being blatantly racist or sexist, it is not really accepted as an excuse.
Read MoreThis term has had a sinister connotation in the past, the context usually being a hijacked aeroplane which is being flown until it crashes. But the pandemic has changed all that.
ZG: 6
Who would have thought that one of the side effects of the rona would be this craving for air travel.
Read MoreThis is a scam linked to third-party sellers on Amazon who want to push good reviews and boost their sales figures, thus going up in the Amazon ranking.
ZG: 4
There are probably only a small number of people in Australia who are victims of this scam but there has been an attempt to raise awareness of it.
Read MoreHuman beings have an obsession with disaster that is part pessimism, part schadenfreude. Gloom and despair will get you more media coverage than hope and optimism.
ZG: 5
Given that we now can take our pick in the contemplation of disasters, this word has had greater currency of late.
Read MoreThe bubble has been a rich vein of new words and meanings. We were familiar with the intimate bubble but now we have the bubble buddy, or buddy bro, the one person you can nominate as your friend in lockdown.
ZG: 5
This one is new and really only applies in Melbourne so restricted in use.
Read MoreWe now have a number of versions of the COVID bubble. The smallest is the bubble in which a household lives. This is extended to the intimate bubble, allowing partners to visit each other in their homes.
ZG: 9
Defining and maintaining a variety of bubbles is how we all think now.
Read MoreThis is the slightly odd idea that we will get our revenge on the coronavirus by doing massive amounts of travel as soon as we are able.
ZG: 7
Perhaps there are many of us dreaming of travel at the moment and planning trips that take the new COVID normal into account.
Read MoreA new figure of authority in our COVID world is the hygiene marshal, a person clad in eye-catching hi-vis clothing who controls social distancing, cleaning and personal hygiene in relation to the coronavirus.
ZG: 6
With the best will in the world we sometimes forget the new routines that apply as we enter venues so having a marshal to give us a reminder is generally accepted.
Read More
