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 have all been encouraged to be alert to the possibility that someone we know is in some kind of crisis, and to ask the simple question How are you feeling? rather than shy away from the difficulty.
ZG: 5
This is a word launched by a public campaign so it remains to be seen whether it really takes in the community or not.
Read MoreThis year has seen the adoption of the acronym BIPOC standing for ‘Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour’. The idea is that this is a unifying grouping for all people who are not white.
ZG: 3
This one is low frequency and will, I think, pass us by.
Read MoreThe inability to think clearly and make decisions has been called bushfire brain when it arises from the overwhelming devastation and loss caused by bushfire.
ZG: 6
Sadly this was something that affected a number of people in the community.
Read MoreThis is the fruit of a small tree, Buchanania obovata, which is native to the woodland areas of northern Australia. It has a small green fruit which is plum-shaped, and so the name green plum.
ZG: 4
This will remain low frequency until the fruit is for sale commercially. After that we will have to see how popular it becomes.
Read MoreThis is a shot at goal taken in the last five minutes of a netball game from the outer part of the goal circle, and is rewarded by a second shot.
ZG: 4
A piece of netball jargon so well-known to a section of the community but not known by others.
Read MoreThis is an aesthetic in fashion and design which tries to recreate the simplicity, naturalness, wholesomeness and self-sufficiency of country living.
ZG: 5
The pandemic has produced some surprising responses. The idyll of rural life has been popular but the pandemic certainly gave it a boost.
Read MoreThis is clothing which is designed to be easy to manage for people with various disabilities, but at the same time well-designed and fashionable.
ZG: 4
A niche market but a worthy goal and a simple and straightforward name.
Read MoreOur goal is net zero, short for net zero carbon emissions, which we hope to reach by 2050. That means that the carbon we emit is cancelled out by what we take away and the bottom line is zero.
ZG: 9
This term has high frequency which will undoubtedly continue as we fail to come to grips with the necessary measures to save the environment.
Read MoreThere is a move towards making favourite takeaways at home, thus reducing the cost and perhaps improving the health value of such meals.
ZG: 6
There has been a lot of COVID humour directed at the home cooking that has been attempted this year as a remedy for boredom. There has also been a lot of UBER eating that has inspired this joke.
Read MoreThe term panda bashing has low frequency but it sits in a well-established set of bashing terms so it has a solid foundation and is supported by its antonym panda hugger, and by the term panda diplomacy.
ZG: 4
Despite the amount of panda bashing that has been done this year, the term does not have huge currency.
Read MoreThis is a notional barrier established by selecting a set of GPS points which are then programmed into an collar fitted with a GPS reader and a device which gives an electric shock.
ZG: 3
An interesting word from agriculture but the system is still in its early days yet. It may get more traction when we see cows apparently running around in unfenced paddocks.
Read MoreThis word, created by a sales and marketing group, was pronounced by the Plain English Foundation to be one of their Worst Words of 2015.
ZG: 5
The word is likely to attract some attention from those people who hate it and wish it would go away.
Read MoreSmishing is the use of SMS messaging for fraudulent purposes, so it breaks down into SMS and phishing.
ZG: 4
This is not a common term, even for those who have been smished.
Read MoreThis one is not common but it caught my eye in a political article recently. Indeed it does seem to occur in either form in the context of politics where you are confronted by two options, neither of which comes up smelling like roses.
ZG: 3
The problem with this word is that however strong the stink from politics, our politicians don’t seem to be able to smell it.
Read MoreThis was the word which Macquarie Dictionary chose as its 2020 Word of the Year, giving a name to what we have all been doing over the course of the year prompted by bushfires, floods and the pandemic. We have been compulsively scrolling through the news on the latest disaster.
ZG: 6
Although this is an apt coinage and useful considering what we have been through, I am not sure of its currency.
We did not acquire the word for this activity until late in the year, taking it from American English where the suggestion is that it had been around since 2018 but achieved mainstream use when some American psychologists decided it was time to give people advice on how to stop this addictive habit. That was in the middle of the year. An American journalist made a feature of it and a few months later we were doomscrolling with the best of them.
An alternative word is doomsurfing.
Read MoreThe new hybrid office is an office in a business in which the staff spend part of their time working remotely, usually at home, and part of their time in the company office.
ZG: 8
The return to work is upon us so how this is to be managed and what the new work patterns will be is of great concern. It is also possible that nothing will be gained from the 2020 work experience and life will be just as it was before.
Read MoreThe discussion about the effectiveness of wearing masks to stop the spread of COVID-19 produced images of the cough cloud. There was debate about how far the cough cloud, the spray of tiny droplets emitted from someone’s mouth when they coughed, would carry.
ZG: 6
The image of the cough cloud produced a certain nervousness in the community as we became aware that we were wearing masks to protect ourselves, certainly, but mostly to protect others from our coughing.
Read MoreAmong the shortened forms giving us a sense of familiarity with COVID-19 and all its ways, there is sanny or hanny san for hand sanitiser, segro for segregation, and quarry or quazza for quarantine.
ZG: 7
None of these are as common as iso and the rona but they help to create an Aussie pandemic experience.
Read MoreThis is a term that has emerged in the rules and restrictions on behaviour governed by Covid-19. You are allowed to dance, but only in the style dubbed subtle dancing.
ZG: 7
Amusing as these terms are, we are going to have to get used to them and live our lives in a vertical and subtle way.
Read MoreThe new move in clothing choices is coming from the down-market end of tracksuits and loose-fitting tops with no bras, combined with sneakers. Quarantine style maintains comfort as the first requirement of clothing but then tries to dress it up a little.
ZG: 7
There is a theory that we will all be reluctant to give up quarantine style when office life returns to normal.
Read More
