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 new variant of the COVID-19 virus as described in the media with the emphasis on how much more infectious or deadly it might be.
ZG: 6
This is an attempt to push back against the unnecessary panic created by media reports of new variants. Whether it will bring the heart rate of the general public back to somewhere near normal remains to be seen.
Read MoreThe concept of the fixated person as a person worthy of scrutiny by the police was one which arose from the Lindt Café siege.
ZG: 5
A legal term which will pop up from time to time. Rarely, we hope.
Read MoreThe weather event that brought this to our attention this year occurred in Canada where a heat dome settled for five days, causing hundreds of deaths, contributing to wildfires, and wreaking havoc on marine life.
ZG: 6
We are likely to have heat domes in Australia this summer (certainly more heat waves are predicted) so we will become more familiar with this term.
Read MoreIt seems that it is time for slang names for the police, such as the cops or the rozzers, to make way for the latest American import which is the popo. This is a Californian slang term from the 1980s which has taken a little while to become popular here.
ZG: 7
This one is clearly a bit of fashionable slang that is on the rise.
Read MoreThis is a state of mind in which you are confused, foggy, forgetful, and basically incapable of putting two thoughts together. The reason is that humans need sociability to keep their brains active.
ZG: 6
This joins a set of ‘brains’ affected by circumstances — baby brain, chemo brain, bushfire brain, and preggie brain.
Read MoreKnown as HITH, or sometimes just HIH, this is a system for the treatment of patients in their own homes rather than in hospital. It has been developing over the last decade and is shown to be safe and effective for a range of illnesses.
ZG: 9
This is very much under discussion at the moment as anxiety about the capacity of our health system to deal with a COVID surge increases.
Read MoreFor people who have been caught up in a sect or particularly authoritarian religion, leaving behind the habits of mind inculcated into them in their religious period can be extremely difficult. It can have lasting consequences.
ZG: 5
This particular syndrome has a higher profile than usual at the moment in the discussion of compensation for victims of abuse who were in the care of religious institutions.
Read MoreIn August last year we learned that the PCR test, to which we were slowly adjusting , was too slow to be helpful when the pressure was on in tracking and tracing. We need a rapid test. This has now been developed and renamed as the rapid antigen test.
ZG: 6
While the benefits of the test are still being questioned, it won’t become a common experience for us all.
Read MoreThis system, in which a shopper orders a product online and then collects it at the store, has been in place in Australia since 2017 but its popularity has grown hugely over the last year thanks to the pandemic.
ZG: 8
Our experience of online shopping is developing and diversifying at a remarkable pace.
Read MoreThis is one of those rare words which, having been coined once, is then coined again with a different meaning. The first time round (in the 1970s) meta-verse meant ‘a network of universes’.
ZG: 4
Still a word for the science fiction fans and those who are interested in trying to detail how such a world might work and what the consequences would be for the human race.
Read MoreThis is a view of the world in which you regard yourself as the main character in some filmic version of your life. For some this is empowering, allowing them to see themselves in a more positive light and be more assertive. For others the main character syndrome simply means that you hog the limelight and everyone else is in the supporting cast.
ZG: 8
This one has taken off on social media. Obviously it is a personality type that is recognisable.
Read MoreA newspaper article assures us that COVID anger is real, and certainly a few friends have admitted to feeling this and being glad that it has a name. It is the boilover of repressed anxiety, frustration and depression.
ZG: 8
This second year of the pandemic feels darker than the first, the sense of togetherness being replaced by isolation and anger.
Read MoreInitially we were concerned about flattening the curve, but then we faced a choice – to open up the country and live with Covid or to keep pursuing the goal of zero cases by stepping up our tracking and tracing.
ZG: 10
This I hugely important at the moment and will continue to be the only topic of discussion for the next months.
Read MoreWay back at the beginning of the pandemic there was a lot of discussion about the reproduction number of the virus which I dealt with under the heading Ro. Now we have the further subtlety of the Reff (effective reproduction number), also written Re or R (t).
Read MoreOne of the many things we can look forward to once everyone is vaccinated is the possibility that we do our quarantine at home rather than in the government designated hotels and quarantine stations.
ZG: 8
If all goes according to plan, we will be seeing a lot more of home quarantine.
Read MoreThere are now some cases recorded of people acquiring COVID-19 even though they are fully vaccinated. Such breakthrough infections, where the virus breaks through the protective layer of the vaccine, are rare but they cannot be discounted.
ZG: 5
This is of increasing concern to a population already worried about the whole business of vaccination.
Read MoreVLP stands for ‘virus-like particle’. This particle is a molecule that mimics a virus, thus producing the required immune response. It is perfectly safe because it has no actual viral material in it and is not infectious.
ZG: 3
Very technical jargon. While we have come to grips with the names and types of a number of vaccines, we may have reached out limit.
Read MoreThere is a running joke in which animals are referred to as ‘puppies’, the kind of puppy being designated by something you associate with the animal. It is jokingly affectionate. So a flying fox is a sky puppy. But to call a snake a hiss puppy seems quite a stretch in terms of affectionate humour.
ZG: 5
This appealing snake is quite worthy of being called a hiss puppy!
If any snake could be called a hiss puppy it is this one. He seems very appealing.
Read MoreThis is a colloquial shortening of lockdown which may just possibly make us feel better about the whole situation. We can add it to the collection of such jokey ways of referring to the things that dismay us, such as the rona and iso.
ZG: 6
This one is still new to us but catching on fast, and obviously needed to lighten the rigours of the lockdown that is upon us.
Read MoreAlongside the development of vaccines there has been the development of treatments for COVID-19. Last year we had remdesivir which inhibits the activity of the virus and reduces recovery time. The drugs dexamethasone and tocilizumab both work as anti-inflammatories. This year we have sotrovimab which is a monoclonal antibody therapy.
ZG: 5
Somehow we don’t get excited about treatments the way we do about vaccines.
Read More
