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.
Obesogen is a backformation from obesogenic, a relatively recent word meaning ‘tending to cause obesity’. In the 1980s this was an adjective mostly applied to diets and unhealthy living styles. The obesogen is the name given to a chemical that promotes weight gain by increasing the activity of cells that store fat or, alternatively, inhibiting their ability to release that store as energy.
ZG: 9
This is a rather depressing view of the world we have created that is now making us obese.
Read MoreThis phrase comes from the netiverse and was originally directed at people who were thought to have spent too much time online (and it was showing). They were therefore advised to go outside into the real world and touch some grass to reconnect.
ZG: 6
For those of us engaged in chat online or in the Twitterverse, this is an accepted expression.
Read MoreFirst we had the permacrisis which Collins Dictionary listed as a Word of the Year for 2022 and defined as ‘an extended period of instability and insecurity’. Now we have the polycrisis, a term popularised by the Columbia University historian Adam Tooze who argues that the individual shocks involved in a polycrisis interact so that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Read MoreThis was the title of a plan launched by the World Economic Forum in 2020 in response to the COVID pandemic. It proposes that after of the great disruption to the world economy caused by the pandemic, we should not go back to capitalism and democracy as we knew it, but rethink what those systems mean and how we can reshape them to produce a greener, smarter, fairer society.
Read MoreA buccal massage is one in which the therapist attempts to stretch and relax the muscles of the cheek. They do this by inserting their finger into the mouth and lining it up with the thumb on the outside of the cheek. They then begin gently stretching the muscles of the cheek.
Read MoreThe blak sovereignty movement asserts that the sovereignty of Indigenous people was never ceded to the British government and that the raising of the British flag in Sydney Cove in 1788 was an illegal act.
ZG: 9
The discussions about the Voice to Parliament will include this minority group. Lydia Thorpe has given it more prominence.
Read MoreAbleism 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 More
