Lexicographer at large
Lexicographer at large

Sue Butler AO

 
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snowdropping

This is not a new word but a very old one, an item of the London dialect that fetched up in Australia with the convicts. The snow element is defined in the glossary of the Flash Language (the language of the criminal fraternity) by James Hardy Vaux as ‘clean linen from the washerwoman’s hands, whether it be wet or dry’. 

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New words

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wet leaf syndrome

This is a translation of the Japanese nureochiba, literally, ‘wet fallen leaf’, a term used by Japanese women to denigrate their retired husbands who, suddenly stuck at home with no occupation and no friends, seem to be like a wet leaf stuck to the wife’s shoe.

ZG: 3

An interesting and vivid expression English has borrowed.

Not a common term but a bit of vivid imagery.

FAFO

I don’t know if you, like me, were puzzled by the comment made by U.S. Defence Secretary Peter Hegseth in explaining — justifying? — the snatching of Nicolás Maduro.  ‘He effed around and he found out’. 

ZG: 6

The phrase is probably more common in America than it is in Australia but FAFO parenting is trending.

choc-lit

Chick-lit we know.  Bridget Jones’ Diary, published in 1996, was one of the first.  Australian Indigenous author, Anita Heiss, decided to make use of the popular genre to introduce mainstream Australia to Indigenous culture and history.  It was to be chick-lit with a purpose.

ZG: 5

The enthusiasm for creating various different lits has not slackened. This one should be popular this year.

Usage matters

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presence and prevalence

I heard a news report on the increase of the prevalence of the police in the CBD — and wondered.  I think that, while you can increase the presence of the police force in the CBD, you can’t increase its prevalence.

mental health

So frequently are we discussing mental health problems and mental health conditions that the phrase mental health is acquiring severely negative connotations. 

tubes and discs

I remember this discussion happening once before — that vegetarian or vegan sausages and burgers should not be referred to using these basic terms but rather described as tubes and discs. Enter the hero of the hour, Paul McCartney, who called for the ban to be dropped.

Sue at TEDxSydney

"There are those who want the dictionary to censor aspects of language that they deem to be unsavoury or undesirable. But language moves on."

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Sue on the ABC's The Link

"I think with blasphemy you are actually going back to the 1600s where if you took the name of God in vain, that would produce the kind of strong reaction that we have to taboo words today.

Those sorts of taboos are losing their force and the F word, I think, would be regarded as still an emphatic colloquialism, but a colloquialism, not a taboo word."

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