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.
What a confusing world we live in where milk isn’t milk anymore and we have become doubtful about what exactly is in a sausage. Well, we always were doubtful about how much meat was in it but now we can expect that there is no meat at all.
ZG: 5
This is an item of official jargon rather than something we all discuss in the supermarket.
Read MoreThe monkeypox virus is related to the smallpox virus but was thought to be much less contagious. It is a virus found in monkeys in the 1950s and then found in humans in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the 1970s. It causes flu-like symptoms and skin rashes or lesions.
Read MoreBarnaby Joyce referred again to the weatherboard and iron people in his comments on his demotion but the other phrase which emerged was his characterisation of the change of leadership in the Nationals as merely changing the curtains.
ZG: 5
It remains to be seen whether this creative phrase will become a permanent feature of our political jargon.
Read MoreAustralians can proudly claim selfie as one of their most widely-used contributions to the English language. The ABC is also proud to have given the word a push when it was used by a participant in a chat room on their site in 2002. The participant stated later on that the word was in popular use at the time.
ZG: 8
Selfie itself would have a rating of 10 and for that reason people are also keen to latch onto these variations on the theme.
Read MoreThis is a therapy for addictions and ungovernable behaviours in which the sufferer is taught to use a state of mindfulness to ride out an urge in the way a surfer rides out a wave. Just like the wave, an urge will start gradually, build to a peak and then fade away.
ZG: 7
Given the number of us who need to control an urger of some kind, whether it is the desire to consume food or alcohol, or to give in to a tantrum, this therapy will become well known.
Read MoreIn Australia have picked up the American colloquialism nimrod meaning ‘an idiot’. It has been around for a few years but has probably gained in frequency in recent years. I don’t think that anyone using it today is aware of its history in relation to Bugs Bunny or the Bible.
ZG: 7
A fairly common colloquialism. A new and fashionable way of saying someone is an idiot in a mild kind of way.
Read MoreWhen it comes to lambs, IMF is what you are looking for. IMF stands for intra muscular fat, which is what makes cooked lamb juicy. It is measured as the fat percentage in the loin muscle of a lamb and visible as marbling. Lamb producers are now being paid a bonus according to the percentage of IMF they have in their product.
ZG: 3
This one is still in planning so it is not common knowledge yet, but no doubt it will be.
Read MoreThe co-infection of COVID-19 and flu, likely to happen this winter, has been given the name flurona. While there is an increased chance of this happening, it is not common.
ZG: 5
A jokey word that helps us to prepare for the winter combination of increased COVID and flu.
Read MoreThe feminist dream of the 80s was that women could have it all — a career and a family at the same time. While women were still stumbling around trying to make themselves as much like men as possible in the workplace, we had the rise of the girlboss, the entrepreneurial young woman who created a business or a start-up and rose to the heights of success rapidly.
ZG: 4
This is a concept that some people would like us to address but not one that everyone has taken on board.
Read MoreJust as there is war on land and at sea, so now there is war in the electromagnetic spectrum. This can be classified as attacking, protective or supportive.
ZG: 5
We are slowly becoming more conscious of the aspects of modern warfare that we need to consider and deal with.
Read MoreThis is something that is newish to the world and definitely new to us because as part of the AUKUS deal we are about to develop them in cooperation with the US and the UK. They are also topical because Russia fired its first hypersonic missile into Ukraine. Russia is the first country ever to test this kind of missile in combat.
ZG: 5
Those who are into military hardware will find this of interest. The rest of us would prefer to leave them alone.
Read MoreThis is a small park created in a parking space. The original idea came from San Francisco in 2005 where two co-workers found a parking space nearby, put money in the meter for a couple of hours and quickly created a parklet using a roll of turf, a park bench and a potted tree. Two hours later they packed it all up.
ZG: 4
They are not common at the moment but the enthusiasm for them is there so maybe there will be more.
Read MoreAn alternative name for this is sobriety coach. Apart from the coach in sport we have had life coach, business coach, health coach, and now we have sober coach, the person who can assist a person who wants to stay sober by analysing the danger points in their lives and finding strategies for dealing with them.
ZG: 5
This one is low-level frequency at the moment but definitely on the up and up.
Read MoreIn the Canberra bubble this is the joking reference to the LMITO (lower and middle income tax offset) about which there is some speculation for the next Budget. This tax break was introduced by Morrison as Treasurer in 2018.
ZG: 5
The lamington did make it into the news in the lead-up to the Budget but it is still very much an in-joke.
Read MoreEvery time a new variant of COVID emerged, it raised an immediate anxiety as to whether the current vaccines would be able to deal with it. Some did, but not as effectively, because the mutations in the new variant meant that the pathogen was not recognised by the vaccine. Would we have to develop a new vaccine specific to each new variety?A better way to go would be to develop a universal COVID-19 vaccine.
ZG: 4
Since the development of this is a long way down the track it is not the subject of much general discussion at the moment.
Read MoreThis is a warehouse which is fully automated so no one needs to be there. Once it is all set up you turn out the lights as you exit because the various machines and robots that are now running the show do not need light.
ZG: 4
This is the way of the future but very few of us are aware of it. It is part of a management jargon at the moment.
Read MoreWe now have a cross between the Delta variant and the Omicron variant of COVID-19. This crossing is called a recombination and occurs when a new variant (Omicron) increases in prevalence to match or surpass the previous variant (Delta).
ZG: 8
Se can expect to hear more about Deltacron. Very little is known at the moment so it is impossible to say what significance this recombination will have for us all.
Read MoreSoft launch and hard launch are marketing terms now being applied to the release of information on social media about one’s relationship status. The soft launch is careful, subtle, sometimes teasing.
ZG: 5
Popular in the magazine word where the social media of celebrities is scrutinised for evidence of romantic entanglements.
Read MoreThis is a jokey name for the glass of wine or whatever alcoholic drink it is that Mummy has at the end of a long day of childminding, playing on the idea that, just as the children have their juice, Mummy has special Mummy juice. It is akin to the office worker’s wine o’clock.
ZG: 8
This is quite a popular joke among mothers and families and friends who sympathise with the lot of the childcarer.
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