New words — Sue Butler — Lexicographer at large

Lexicographer at large

New Words

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.

glass cliff

glass cliff

Women seeking senior positions in organisations, government and private, lead dangerous lives. First they have to break through the glass ceiling, that barrier which is invisible but very effective in preventing women from being selected for the top jobs, despite their having the necessary qualifications. Having shattered that ceiling they may find themselves confronted by the glass cliff.

ZG: 7

Both these words are markers of the observation that the workplace is structured to favour men.

BusinessSue ButlerNovember 27, 2023Comment

phrogging

phrogging

This is the practice of living in someone’s house without their knowledge. Usually it involves finding a hidey-hole — in the roof, under the floorboards, in the attic or basement, etc. — and emerging when the residents of the house are out.

SocietySue ButlerNovember 20, 2023 Comment

upsum

upsum

BusinessSue ButlerNovember 14, 2023Comment

bitumen bandit

bitumen bandit

This is a shonky tradie operating in regional Australia where there is a demand for bitumen on roads near houses that would otherwise raise a lot of dust. The bitumen bandit arrives offering what seems to be a price that is too good to be true for putting down bitumen.

ZG: 4

The alliteration in bitumen bandit makes it appealing. Our only other bandit appears to be the one-armed bandit.

SocietySue ButlerNovember 6, 2023Comment

silent walking

silent walking

This is a TikTok trend which has attracted a number of enthusiastic followers. The idea is that you go for a walk but first you unplug yourself from whatever devices are occupying your time and attention. Remove the earbuds and headphones so that you can observe your surroundings and listen to the sounds made in the environment.

ZG: 5

It is a thing of the moment. Whether it will last is another matter.

Health, Soc mediaSue ButlerOctober 30, 2023Comment

digital blackface

digital blackface

Sometimes white people think that black people are better at expressing their feelings in ways that are confident and cool. So they borrow these expressions in social media to fill the gap in their own communicative abilities. But this is considered most inappropriate.

ZG: 6

This has emerged as part of an ongoing debate about the appropriateness of this style of expression in social media.

Soc mediaSue ButlerOctober 23, 2023Comment

dejab

dejab

The experience of wearing the hijab is one that is steeped in religious and cultural significance. Similarly the decision to dejab, to cease to wear the hijab, is accompanied by fear that your family and community may reject you as a consequence.

ZG: 6

The wearing or not wearing of the hijab is an issue for a minority of women in Australia but for them it has enormous significance.

SocietySue ButlerOctober 16, 2023Comment

skills passport

skills passport

This is a system for securely storing one’s education and training accreditations in one digitised system that allows for the individual employee to update and verify their details and for employers to access the database to find the workers with the skills that they need.

ZG: 3

Government jargon at the moment but it could become common.

Business, PoliticsSue ButlerOctober 9, 2023Comment

planetary boundary

planetary boundary

Fifteen years ago a group of scientists identified nine processes vital to the Earth system in an attempt to clarify what climate change was going to mean to us all. Three of these processes are based on what we are removing from the environment. The other nine are what we have put into the system to its detriment.

ZG: 5

WE should be paying more attention to planetary boundary but it is still probably part of the jargon of scientists rather than mainstream.

EnvironmentSue ButlerOctober 3, 2023Comment

nose beer

nose beer

It is always the way with recreational drugs that are illegal that they acquire a number of slang names. After all, you don’t want to shout out ‘I’m doing cocaine tonight’. Much better to announce that you are having a couple of nose beers.

ZG: 7

A colloquialism that seems fairly popular.

ColloquialSue ButlerOctober 3, 2023Comment

protein shake

protein shake

Way back in the 1950s the protein supplement was introduced into the food market, initially as something to assist the sick and the elderly. But in recent years it has become a fad, an obsession, with some alarming health consequences.

ZG: 5

An item that is popular within a small circle of fitness fanatics.

HealthSue ButlerSeptember 25, 2023Comment

sterile corridor

sterile corridor

A generation ago a policeman who found a good contact in the criminal world would guard such a resource jealously. He or she might not even disclose the identity of the contact let alone allow others to speak to them. But this has ended badly in a number of cases, most notably recently in the Victorian case involving Nicola Gobbo.

SocietySue ButlerSeptember 25, 2023Comment

climate ghetto

climate ghetto

The various natural disasters that have occurred in the last few years have led to an increase in insurance costs for areas badly affected by flood or fire. This has divided the people in the area into the group which can still afford to insure their homes, and those who can’t.

ZG: 7

There is a growing awareness of the problems arising from uninsurability.

EnvironmentSue ButlerSeptember 25, 2023Comment

malvertising

malvertising

This is the practice of inserting malicious code into legitimately placed ads which will pop up on your website. The word is a blend of malware and advertising.

ZG: 6

This is the computer hacking threat of the moment.

BusinessSue ButlerSeptember 25, 2023Comment

agrivoltaics

agrivoltaics

This is a blended word, combining agriculture and photovoltaics (the generation of electricity using light sources, in particular, the sun). The panels and the plants or animals have to share the sunlight so an agrivoltaic farm needs to make it work for both.

EnvironmentSue ButlerSeptember 18, 2023Comment

power mapping

power mapping

This is a tool that makes clear (by way of visualisation) the relationships of power in an organisation or community which have to be navigated in order to bring about social change.

ZG: 4

This is a specialised term which has gained notice because of the activities of some organisations in gaining undue influence with the government.

Business, PoliticsSue ButlerSeptember 18, 2023Comment

tiger-striping

tiger-striping

I had to wade through a certain amount of tiger stripe cocktails online in order to find tiger-striping but Google and I got there eventually. This tiger striping is the practice of alternating an alcoholic drink with a non-alcoholic drink.

ZG: 6

There is something quirky about this coinage which means it is likely to catch on.

Colloquial, Health, SocietySue ButlerSeptember 18, 2023Comment

NPC

NPC

In gaming an NPC is a non-playable character in the game, one that the players cannot control. It was originally controlled by the gamemaster or referee, and then later the computer. So to be called an NPC in real life is an insult.

ZG: 6

The word has certainly spread beyond the gaming world but it is still niche.

ColloquialSue ButlerSeptember 11, 2023Comment

Pirola

Pirola

It has been some time since we named our last COVID variant and now we have a new one, nicknamed Pirola. Its official name from the World Health Organisation is BA.2.86. It is classified as a variant under monitoring which means that it hasn’t yet made it to being a variant of interest, let alone a variant of concern.

Sue ButlerSeptember 11, 2023Comment

Jewface

Jewface

Jewface is the portrayal of a Jewish person by a non-Jewish person using theatrical makeup and prosthetics. This has become an issue in the biopic about Leonard Bernstein, Maestro, where Bradley Cooper, playing the part of Bernstein, has used prosthetics to give himself a bigger nose.

SocietySue ButlerSeptember 4, 2023Comment