Snail farming may be taking off in Australia because now, as well as eating the snail (as escargots) we can eat the eggs of the snail as snail caviar. 

ZG: 3

Not popular yet!

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The dictionary at the moment has just the one entry for corruption. This, I have discovered, is not nearly good enough.  There is a corruption glossary that needs to be considered for inclusion. We can start with grey corruption because that has come to the fore in the Victorian inquiry into the behaviour of the ALP in that state.

ZG: 5

A piece of jargon in the world of politics but of concern for us all. It is what is called more generally ‘jobs for the boys’.

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Apparently the dead giveaway for the performative male is the tote bag, often with Labubu doll attached.  The second clue is that they are clutching a book by a female author, which they read as they sip their matcha latte.

ZG: 4

It seems that it has become difficult for men to choose the right fashion statement.

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This is the rather unappealing name for the rebel Rugby competition.  What every rebel competition needs is people with money to back it. In this case the money that secured the venture came from private backers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia.

ZG: 5

This keeps resurfacing as a sports news item as the struggle for players continues.

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These days a ghost ship is a vessel that is avoiding being identified and held accountable for violations of sanctions or violations of national borders.

ZG: 4

There has been more frequent mention of these.

The increasing use of ghost ships is of concern to everyone.

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Combine the bob with the pixie and you have the bixie which offers almost the length of the bob with the layered texture and jagged edges of the pixie.

ZG: 5

Even Helen Mirren has one it seems.

It seems fashionable in 2025.

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This naturally follows generation alpha, the generation growing up after 2010 who took to social media like ducks to water.  Gen beta are the children growing up after 2025 who will be the first to have AI as a natural part of their lives. 

ZG: 7

Undoubtedly here to stay along with the rest of the set.

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Limb-lengthening is a medical procedure undertaken to correct birth defects, injuries and the effects of disease, but it is now being done for cosmetic reasons.

ZG: 4

Let us hope that the popularity of this procedure wanes.

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CAES (compressed air energy storage) is one solution to the problem of how to store energy from renewable resources to stabilise the grid. 

ZG: 4

Not a common term yet but it will be!

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Two American psychologists in 1956b identified a parasocial relationship as a one-sided relationship.  You may be infatuated with a movie star but the movie star doesn’t even know that you exist.

ZG: 5

The people in these relationships don’t use the term but increasingly it will be used about them by others.

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A bed designed to meet both the medical needs and the emotional needs of patients and caregivers as in palliative care or in the nursing of pre-term babies.  The bed is larger enough for two but can be separated into two single beds as required.

ZG: 4

A small number of people in the community will have the need for a cuddle bed.

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By announcing AI slop as their word of the year, Macquarie Dictionary has escaped being cancelled by all the primary teachers of Australia.  If they had chosen 6-7 it would have been a very different matter.

ZG: 7

While it is hugely topical at the moment, it could be here today and, we hope, gone tomorrow.

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This is the responsibility that digital platforms should bear for keeping their users safe and preventing online harms such as scams. 

ZG: 9

This is a big issue that affects us all.

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This is the blue from Bluetooth combined with the colloquialism snarf meaning ‘to eat greedily’. It is the theft of information from a device that uses Bluetooth technology.

ZG: 3

So many things we have to watch out for!

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Archeologists of the future, when they come to examine life on Earth in the Anthropocene, may also discover the products of technology which never break down.  Plastics will last forever. 

ZG: 4

Not a common term but a necessary one.

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Those of you who read naked running might be tempted to think that this is flying without instruments which would be interesting.  But no. Naked in this context means ‘without paraphernalia of any kind’, so naked flying is stepping onto a commercial airline with no baggage.

ZG: 4

While there is increased pressure to adopt this style of travel, most of us feel the need to cart a certain amount of our stuff with us.

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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.

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Inflation 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.

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This 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.

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