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.
The clachan finds a place in the Australian English lexicon because we have the remnants of the only one found outside Ireland. A clachan is a traditional Scottish or Irish village.
ZG: 4
Of historical interest, particularly to those who are interested in the Irish influence in Australia.
Read MoreThe composting burial is a procedure that begins by placing the body of the person that has died in a casket along with wood chips, soil, straw and alfalfa. The heat created as the body decomposes speeds up the process and eliminates germs.
ZG: 4
Not for everyone yet, I think, but as our concern for the environment grows, who knows what might become the new appropriate way of dealing with the funeral process.
Read MoreThese are the volunteer firefighters who work alongside the Royal Fire Service. In some parts of the country they are called the Black Ops Brigade.
ZG: 5
Probably a passing phenomenon of the recent bushfires but who knows, next summer may bring them out again.
Read MoreThis is the justice that is sought for those affected by climate change, such as climate migrants. This is to be achieved by developing climate law, which currently does not deal with many of the situations arising from the changing environment.
ZG: 7
The efforts to bring the notion of climate justice to the attention of the world will undoubtedly increase the currency of the term.
Read MoreThis is sometimes referred to as the silent forest syndrome and is the result of unchecked animal poaching which has emptied the forest of all wildlife so that it becomes eerily silent.
ZG: 7
Silent forests must be one of the saddest manifestations of environmental vandalism.
Read MoreThis is a subset of dark tourism, that is, tourism to places where atrocities have occurred. The disaster tourist seeks places where man-made or natural disasters have occurred.
ZG: 6
There has been only too much opportunity for disaster tourists in Australia in the last six months.
Read MoreThis is the group of people who operate in a black market for the kind of sand used in making concrete. Not all sand will do, which makes the right kind of sand precious.
ZG: 5
An interesting contemporary addition to the mafia set.
Read MoreThis is the short form of pyrocumulonimbus. It is one of the many names given what we would commonly call a firestorm, that is, a weather event created by a huge and intense bushfire.
ZG: 6
A technical term but one which, in its shortened form, may well become more familiar to us in future bushfire seasons.
Read MoreThis type of facemask is also known, more correctly, as a P2 respirator and is able to filter out fine particles from the air. Initially the demand in Australia was for protection against bushfire smoke but then it became part of the protective gear against the spread of the Covid-19 virus.
ZG 8
This is just a product, a device, and so is less interesting than other new words with more cultural significance, and yet it seems to have become a symbol for both the bushfires and the Covid-19 outbreak.
Read MoreClimate fires are fires brought about by climate change, being different from anything else previously experienced in their ferocity, extent and duration. The precursor is prolonged drought and the immediate cause is intense heat brought about by global warming.
ZG: 10
This has to be the most significant term that we acquired in 2019 along with the many other compounds with climate that were added to the lexicon in this period.
Read MoreCiimate exodus is the departure en masse of communities from regions made uninhabitable by climate change.
ZG: 9
Sadly we are probably going to witness an increase in the number of incidences of climate exodus.
Read MoreA megafire, also called a megablaze, is a fire which has grown to such huge proportions and covers such a vast area of land that to confine or contain it is no longer possible. Instead firefighters concentrate on saving lives and property.
ZG: 8
The mega fire has been a frightening new experience this summer. The gigafire would be truly terrifying.
Read MoreThis is a mixture of woody hemp fibre from inside the hemp stalk combined with lime and water. The resulting mix is packed into a wooden frame and tamped down to make a wall.
ZG: 4
I don’t think hempcrete has reached the popularity that mud bricks had in the 1980s but who knows? It may take off.
Read MoreForest bathing is a kind of Japanese fusion bushwalking, Australian-style but with a Japanese aesthetic, so that we enter the bush in a mindful way to enhance our health and wellbeing.
ZG: 3
There has been a strong Japanese influence in Australian cuisine and design, but it is probably still a minority interest.
Read MoreThis is a downing of tools to support action on climate change. The beginnings of this action to confront the climate emergency were the school strikes inspired by Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.
ZG: 9
The climate strike which I attended this year felt like just the beginning of bigger and better and more insistent strikes to come.
Read MoreThe term climate emergency is being used in preference to climate change, and global heating rather than global warming. Warming sounds quite pleasant, whereas heating is clearly bad. An emergency is much more alarming than a simple change which could be good, could be bad.
ZG: 9
This is definitely one that is in common currency and here for the long haul.
Read MoreThis is the sense of guilt that some of us have now in relation to our air travel, an activity that is one of the greatest contributors to greenhouse emissions.
ZG: 7
Australians are probably slower to pick up on this particular guilt than the Europeans because our need for air travel is greater.
Read MoreA spell of hot weather at sea is regarded as a heatwave if it is above what is usual for the season and goes beyond five days.
ZG: 6
We will no doubt become more aware of these as they increase in frequency and we see the effects.
Read MoreA rain bomb usually occurs in the middle of a thunderstorm associated with a cold front, so it pulls down a lot of water.
ZG: 6
Although these are increasing in frequency, although such weather phenomena are of great interest at the moment, it is not in widespread use in Australia.
Read MoreCongestion busting is a theme of political discussion this year. Infrastructure is planned that will reduce the volumes of traffic on the road, sort out the traffic jams and remove the blockages from the road systems.
ZG: 8
Since the problem of congestion on the roads is getting worse, this is a term that will be bandied around for some time.
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