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.
Ableism is discrimination against people with disabilities. In the case of eco-ableism such discrimination is driven by a zeal to protect the environment. Unfortunately some of the measures taken to achieve this righteous cause can create difficulties for the disabled.
ZG: 6
Read MoreMacquarie Dictionary needs to act now since the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) met at Versailles on 18 November 2022 and introduced four new prefixes to the International System of Units. These are ronna- (10 to the power of 27) and ronto- (10 to the power of minus 27) and quetta- (10 to the power of 30) and quecto- (10 to the power of minus 30).
ZG: 2
One for the experts in the field.
Read MoreTo make bank is to make a lot of money, more than is needed to just cover the essentials. It gives you riches to play with.
Read MoreSuddenly there are various people in the community who see their jobs being taken over by a chatbot, and among them are journalists. It seems that a number of people have taken to testing out ChatGPT, the latest piece of software in this area, and have found that it can churn out an article on what to do in Sydney or which are the best places for breakfast in Melbourne without any trouble at all.
Read MoreThis is what lies at the heart of the chatbot, a piece of software which uses auditory or textual prompts to mimic the responses of a human being, either by voice or text. The problem is that suddenly generative AI is much more successful than it has ever been before.
Read MoreKim Kardashian is an influencer with 341.9 million followers. A micro-influencer typically has between 3,000 and 10,000 followers BUT they are serious followers who share a niche interest and are convinced of the integrity of the micro-influencer and the value of the information provided.
ZG: 8
With pretty well everyone aspiring to be an influencer, but failing that, a micro-influencer, this word has high frequency. That was before we started discussing how to regulate them.
Read MoreThis is often shortened to drone gun. The device is new so it may take some time for the name to become established. It is a handheld electromagnetic pulse weapon which jams the communication signals of a targeted drone and can bring it down or force it to return to base or make an emergency landing.
ZG: 3
The situation in Ukraine has created a market for these.
Read MoreYou probably feel that the Word of the Year is done and dusted, but there is one more contribution to discuss. This is from the American Dialect Society who started the whole idea of Word of the Year in 1990. Their Word of the Year for 2022 was the suffix -ussy.
ZG: 2
This word play is in a way designed to be a badge of pride for a minority in the community so it will never be mainstream. Perhaps I shouldn’t say ‘never’.
Read MoreThis is thought to be pig Latin derived from session, often shortened to sesh, and referring to a prolonged period of consuming alcoholic drinks, smoking pot, or gaming. An eshay adlay is a sesh lad, one of the guys who is up for a sesh. It is amazing how pig Latin endures as an easy code for obscuring communications.
ZG: 6
Apparently there are kids in primary school who are aiming to be eshay lads when they grow up so it is here to stay.
I did not know eshay but I realised that it was out of my sphere so I consulted my fashion expert, my hairdresser, who knew all about it. So I guess within a certain section of the community eshay has high frequency.
Read MoreAn e-change is a sea change or tree change with the addition of technology giving fast broadband access.
ZG: 5
This was increasingly popular towards the end of the pandemic but is obviously not for everyone.
Read MoreThis is the colloquial name for a medication called melantonin which produces a darkened skin similar to the tan sported by Barbie doll in her beach mode. It does look oddly unnatural.
ZG: 4
Not many of us are keen to try the Barbie drug which is certainly getting publicity of a negative kind.
Read MoreAs is often the way these days, this expression began its life on Twitter almost a decade ago, moved through social media and finally became mainstream this year with a story about Julia Fox, the model, who split up with Kanye West.
ZG: 7
This expression has obviously been given a push along by the publicity surrounding Word of the Year, but it does seem to resonate with at least part of the community.
Read MoreThis is a derogatory term, the equivalent of nutter. It has been applied to the far-right extremists who believe in conspiracy theories and who are anti-vaxxers probably because they think it is a government plot to get at them.
ZG: 3
I get the feeling that this one does not have high frequency. Most of the examples on Twitter are from Victoria where they had greater experience of organised anti-vax protests.
Read MoreOver the years many of us have commented that the food products we used to like have become noticeably smaller. The shortbreads are smaller, the chocolate biscuits, the chocolate block, the soft drink, the Mars bar. The cereal inside the (big) packet is a much smaller quantity. Now we have a name for it — shrinkflation.
ZG: 7
We all feel the need for this word to describe our experiences in the supermarkets.
Read MoreThe bachelor’s handbag is occasionally the tradie’s handbag or the the bachelor’s briefcase, and it is the supermarket roast chook delivered in a plastic bag with handles (which strengthens the handbag concept).
Read MoreNow that we have access to medicinal cannabis, there are jobs in the cannabis market here. The budtender (blend of bud and bartender) is the person who deals with customers and advises them on what to buy for their particular treatment.
ZG: 4
This is a specialist market but one that is expanding rapidly in Australia so we are becoming more familiar with the jargon of the trade.
Read MoreThe other name for this person is COVID virgin. We have all wondered why it is that one person gets COVID but another, a partner or close relative, doesn’t, even though it is clear that the virus is highly contagious. These people who have never had COVID are also under scrutiny from health researchers because the hypothesis is that the resistance they have to the virus must come from something unusual in their genes.
ZG: 6
The idea that someone can actually make it through the pandemic without catching the virus is one that interests people.
Read MoreMacquarie Dictionary puts together on its website a list of new words that might possibly be included in the dictionary, and invites people to comment. Among the words for July was phone bone, a bony outgrowth at the base of the neck ‘caused by the posture associated with phone use’. The other word for it is text neck.
ZG: 8
Rhyme is obviously powerful in generating credibility.
Read MoreThis is a style of theatre-going that originated in the UK a decade ago. It was originally intended for children with a range of conditions that it made it difficult for them to sit still and quiet in darkness for the duration of the performance.
ZG: 4
This is a very special style of theatre but one that has great appeal for some in the community.
Read More
