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.
If you find yourself romantically or sexually involved with someone so that they are more than a friend but not quite an official partner then you are in a situationship.
ZG: 5
This is a fashionable term with high frequency in a particular age group.
Read MoreThis is a trojan asteroid which shares an orbit around the Sun with the Earth. The story begins, however, with Jupiter which was discovered to have a large number of these asteroids in its orbit.
ZG: 5
A term from astronomy which arouses a frisson of alarm as we contemplate the fact that we are sharing an orbit with a large lump of rock.
Read MoreThis is the name for the new industry which is about to deliver us our beef steaks and fish fillets as cell-based products. That is to say, instead of grazing cattle so that they can be killed and cut up into steaks, we just produce steaks in the laboratory from cells obtained from the cattle.
ZG: 6
This one will matter a great deal more to us in the future.
Read MoreWhat the world is now calling the Son of Omicron, the WHO is calling an Omicron subvariant. It is not yet considered to be a variant of interest, let alone of concern, but we are all so sensitive to the idea that another variant will come and we will go back to square one that it has attracted at least media attention.
ZG: 7
This one has caused a minor ripple but since mostly we don’t know whether we have Omicron or Son or Omicron it has ceased to matter.
Read MoreUnwanted negative thoughts haunt us all but now there is a new technique for stopping them. The thing to do is to use a device such as saying ‘Stop!’ out loud, or snapping your fingers or pulling on an elastic band around your wrist to interrupt the bad thought.
ZG: 6
A well-known example of this is the Seinfeld episode which plays with the idea of expressed and repressed emotions, in which George’s father, Frank Costanza, uses the phrase Serenity Now! as his thought stopper to prevent him going into a rage.
Read MoreThis baby is special because the mother has previously experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death. The baby that follows these sad events is like the rainbow after the storm and considered, even more than most babies, to be a symbol of hope.
ZG: 5
This is the jargon of a small subset of the community, important to them no doubt but without much wider currency.
Read MoreWe should all have one. Who knew? An oximeter can measure the level of oxygenation in the blood. A pulse oximiter takes your heart rate at the same time. It looks a bit like a clothes peg which you put on your finger.
ZG: 6
In this period of home treatments and anxiety about COVID we may all be obtaining one.
Read MoreThis natty is short for natural and relates to the natural bodybuilding movement which eschews all performance-enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids, insulin and human growth hormones. Rather a natural bodybuilder will rely on diet and training to produce natural anabolic hormones that increase strength and promote recovery.
ZG: 3
A bit of bodybuilding jargon, important because it relates to the argument about the use of drugs in sport, but not much known to people outside that world.
Read MoreHEPA is an acronym standing for High-Efficiency Particulate Air (or Absorbance) (or Arrestance) and pronounced [hep-pa]. A filter designated as HEPA has increased efficiency in removing particles produced by dust, pollen, moisture, bacteria and viruses from the air you breathe.
ZG: 3
A bit of technical term this one and likely to be forgotten as we relax all restrictions and cease to be concerned about the air we breathe.
Read MoreA COVID chaser is a person who decides that, if we are all going to catch the virus anyway, they might as well have it at a time that is convenient to them. So they actively seek to contract the virus in that period of time by going out to big parties or events, visiting people who have it, and so on.
ZG: 6
In the absence of leadership from the government, people are working out their own strategies for how to handle the Omicron outbreak.
Read MoreThis was an animal much prized in the third millennium B.C.E. in the ancient kingdom of Syria. It was a cross between a domestic donkey and a wild ass and had greater strength than the donkey making it useful as a draught animal in agriculture and in war. There are mosaic images of chariots being drawn by these equids (members of the horse family).
ZG: 3
Not something that you will find yourself discussing every day but interesting nonetheless.
Read MoreThis is a bit of politics jargon that we have picked up from the UK. The story goes that the Editor of the Sun, Kelvin McKenzie, regarded it as a duty of journalists to stick a ferret up the legs of politicians. All he meant by this was that they should make life uncomfortable for them.
ZG: 7
The back story on this one is a bit complicated but, nevertheless, we appear to be warming to it. Perhaps we are sick of backflip.
Read MoreThe world is constantly on the watch for new variants of COVID-19. This one was identified late last year by researchers at the IHU Mediterranee Infection Institute in Marseilles.
ZG: 4
Worth mentioning because we are so nervous about new variants but dismissed as being of no great interest as yet.
Read MorePrecision public health makes use of technology and big data to pinpoint a public health problem and make an intervention that is swift and targeted.
ZG: 3
This is a specialist term with low currency in the community at large.
Read MoreWe know it mostly, if we know it at all, as water cremation but this alternative name was brought to prominence by the funeral of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He was an environmentalist so he asked for this style of cremation because it was friendly to the planet, used a lot less energy than a normal cremation, and reduced carbon emissions.
ZG: 4
The word achieved high frequency but for a short period of time.
Read MoreThe figurative use of gear change seems to have come in comparatively recently. It has been popular in horse racing reporting. Queen Elizabeth was reported to be accepting a gear change, from high to low, after her recent illness. And now it has been added to the ScoMo verbal display.
ZG: 7
Politicians use figurative terms to put spin on their message. The gear change conjures up power, control and forward movement.
Read MoreThe idea of shapeshifting is that in a world in which the old political divisions are dissolving into numerous smaller groups, and the media is increasingly narrowcasting, the way to get the votes you need to win power is to work out how to appeal to as many of these groups as possible.
ZG: 8
Already we can see the tactics for the next election emerging.
Read MoreReal money gambling (or RMG) allows you to pay unlimited amounts of money in and, if you win, extract your winnings from the app and get real money back again.
ZG: 6
Since this is still illegal in Australia not many of us know about it, but it will become a real problem if it is made legal and our real money disappears.
Read MoreTo vax or not to vax, that is the question is a rewrite of the line in Hamlet that is doing the rounds. Indeed, the debate has been raging for some months now and shows no sign of abating.
ZG: 10
Omicron has pushed vaccination into the spotlight again, just when we thought we were doing well on that front. But now we need to be triple-vaxxed so it’s back to getting the jab again.
Read MoreA colloquial shortened form of mental breakdown which has the effect of making it no more than a tantrum, really. Diminutives have that power to transform something that might be serious or threatening into something friendly, familiar and mildly humorous.
ZG: 5
This seems to be a common response to being introduced to menty b. It’s catchy and people can see a use for it.
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