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.
Once if a girl was labelled ‘weird’, that meant social ostracisation. Now being weird has come to mean being highly individualistic, and authentic — that modern word of praise.
ZG: 5
Playing with the idea of different styles of lit seems to be popular at the moment.
Read MoreInflation is accompanied by a rise in the cost of living. Friendflation is the rise in the cost of having friends and maintaining these friendships at regular social occasions which inevitably call for some expenditure.
ZG: 4
This is more a sociologist’s term for an observed trend. The people experiencing this may well discuss cossie livs but I doubt that they discuss friendflation.
Read MoreThis is a visa introduced this year by China to attract STEM graduates to work in China. It is seen as a step to attract more of the world’s best science and technology young talent to China in the race with the US.
ZG: 3
It will be interesting to see how this develops.
Read MoreFrom K-pop we have moved to K-beauty. We now follow obsessively the skin treatments and cosmetics that are coming from South Korea.
ZG: 4
I’m sure the younger generation is very much aware of the allure of K-beauty.
Read MoreIf you have ever been confronted by a blank stare from a young person in response to something you have said, then you may have experienced the Gen-Z stare. There are many explanations offered for this stare but the general opinion seems to be that it is the equivalent of D’uh! in non-verbal form.
ZG: 6
Intergenerational communication is often a puzzle.
Read MoreThis has been a derogatory term in science fiction since the 1950s for a robot because they were seen as crude creations that made a clanking sound as they went on their way.
ZG: 5
We are very nervous of the AI revolution and robots are its main creature.
Read MoreWe have had a long time to come up with various descriptions of writing that we think is less than the best. Hackneyed, stale, prosaic. So now we are beginning a similar assessment of the output from AI, whether it is text or images or a combination.
ZG: 8
We are sensitised at the moment to any nuance in our management of AI.
Read MoreApparently about five years ago Trump was very much opposed to cancel culture and in favour of free speech. But now he has discovered that free speech involves people saying derogatory things about HIM.
ZG: 4
I really don’t think this one will take off.
Read MoreScambling (scam + gambling) is a broad term for any fraudulent online gambling. Speculating on crypto currencies is described as a form of scambling. The particular type of scambling that has become the scourge of remote Indigenous communities is one that they have called ding ding because of the sound of pokie machines used in the game.
ZG: 5
Not exactly a mainstream term but the effects of gambling in Indigenous communities is a major concern.
Read MoreThis is the feeling of frustration experienced as a result of boredom with one’s work. It is the opposite of burnout where you have been super stressed and worked harder than any mere mortal should.
ZG: 4
People like to play around with a word and create variations. Burnout is here to stay. I’m not sure that rustout will hang around for long.
Read MoreIt sounds cute — a potato plant with a mop-top look— but the mop-top is created from stunted foliage in the plant caused by the potato mop-top virus (PMTV). The tubers below the ground have stained rings or arcs in the vegetable flesh.
ZG: 4
I’m sure in Tasmania the frequency of use is high.
Read MoreThis is an accepted type of interview, usually conducted in an effort to lead a client to a solution, particularly in legal matters. The whole conversation is empathetic and supportive, so that together the interviewer and the interviewee can reach a good solution.
ZG: 3
A technical term which has briefly surfaced in the mainstream.
Read MoreRemigration has become a cause in the current context of migration into European countries, the Identitarian Movement was born in France in the 2000s. It defends the rights of White Europeans to keep their culture and racial identities.
ZG: 4
This political buzzword in the UK has a minor resonance here.
Read MoreThe wind turbines on poles that are proliferating around the country at the moment may be joined by airborne cousins producing airborne wind energy (AWE).
ZG: 4
The fact that they may be in more remote places and less visible is of interest to some I am sure.
Read MoreModelled on downsizing, townsizing is the conscious choice of small towns as a holiday destination rather than the bigger, expensive cities. You can settle in, however briefly, to the quaint charm of the little town tucked away in some not usually travelled part of the world.
ZG: 6
Many of us are doing this without actually giving it a name, but, thoughtfully, the tourism industry has provided one.
Read MoreThe new use of chat is to be the equivalent of guys or gang, as in Hey chat, where are we going tonight? This derives from its use on social media where it serves as a form of address for the people in the chat group viewed collectively.
ZG: 7
Perhaps not an everyday expression today but keep an eye on its popularity in the future.
Read MoreThis is a term that has bumbled along through the 1900s (though unrecorded by the Oxford English Dictionary). Since 2020 its frequency has skyrocketed. This is of course all to do with sovereign citizens and their tendency to invent legal justifications for their actions.
ZG: 9
We are all now grappling with the strange beliefs of the sovereign citizens and wondering how things came to this pass.
Read MoreIt all begins with the Black drag scene in America in the 1990s where the expression spill the T meant ‘to open up about something’. T stood for truth. But some wit changed T to tea .
Read MoreI dealt with main character syndrome in 2021, a term with negative connotations. A person who sees themselves as the main character in their life story sees everyone else as playing supporting roles. So main character energy became the confidence and style with which you presented your life story. A positive thing.
ZG: 5
It is increasingly important on social media and in real life to have main character energy.
Read MoreThe Korean name for the domestic pop genre that developed in the early 1990s was gayo, but the term K-pop emerged in 1999, following the pattern of J-pop.
ZG: 5
This is part of a general surge of interest in Korean culture.
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