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.
This is the name given to the povety experienced by women and girls who are unable to access resources during their menstruation period, because of lack of finances or lack of facilities provided at schools and workplaces.
ZG: 4
There is a global movement to eliminate period poverty which has given the expression frequency in some political circles.
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 piece of actuarial jargon that describes the hypothetical situation in which the predicted longevity of a person outstrips the actual time that is passing.
ZG: 5
Still not an item on everyone’s lips but one that is thrown up by the awareness that in some countries people are living to a much older age than was thought likely even a few decades ago.
Read MoreThe chemical restraint is a psychotropic drug or a psychopharmacologic agent now commonly used in the care of the elderly, particularly, those suffering from dementia.
ZG: 8
There are no immediate solutions being offered to the problems occurring in the care of the aged in Australia so we can expect to hear more about the use fo chemical restraints in the future.
Read MoreThe recent concerns about the increased strength of the drug MDMA that was turning up in Australia introduced me to terms like double droppingand triple dropping. This is basically taking two or three pills at once
ZG : 6
While drug-taking is not for everyone, the prevalence of it among young people has risen to alarmingly high levels. These words are part of the general discussion that is taking place at the moment.
Read MoreThis is a form of trauma can have repercussions that carry over from one generation to the next, through the mechanism of post traumatic stress disorder.
ZG: 7
It has dawned on us sadly that one Sorry Speech cannot magically undo all the harm that has been done.
Read MoreA gateway drug is the first one taken in a pattern of drug-taking that tends to progress from licit to illicit, from drugs with a mild effect to drugs with a powerful effect.
ZG: 5
This one is more the jargon of the health profession, but will continue to feature in the discussion of drug taking in the community.
Read MoreThis is an amusing term used by those who favour nude beaches for a beach where people wear swimming costumes. You can also refer to a person who wears a swimming costume as a textile.
ZG: 5
It’s fun and colloquial but the jargon of a small group.
Read MoreThis term was new to me although it has apparently been around in the US since the 1980s with reference to the aging population.
ZG: 7
Our population is aging so it is nor surprising that we have new terms to express this idea, some of them containing a sense of threat.
Read MoreEjiao (pronounced [e-jow]) is a gelatin derived from the hide of a donkey, and used in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of bleeding, dizziness, insomnia and a dry cough.
ZG: 4
The things that people need and which initiate trade are sometimes surprising. To think that our wild donkeys could be worth a fortune in China!
Read MoreThis is a table of the ideal consumption quantities of protein, carbohydrate, minerals, unsaturated oils, etc., which you then have to convert into what you buy at the shops so that the total calorie intake per day for an adult is 2500.
ZG: 9
I don’t usually pay much attention to the latest fashionable diet but this one is different. I have grave doubts that it can be implemented but it is obviously desirable that it should.
Read MoreThe more formal name is side impact collision or broadside accident.
ZG:4
I have encountered people who thought that if we took the word cancer out of the dictionary, the disease would stop in its tracks. Perhaps, on those lines, if we don’t put this one in, we will have fewer such accidents.
Read MoreThe egg-timer test is a sign that balancing career and maternity is a problem for women today.
ZG: 7
There are many stories about the disappointment experienced by women who have left it too late. This test is an expression of anxiety rather than a solution.
Read MoreThe elderly are elderly people who enjoy good health. The word is, fairly obviously, a blend of well and elderly.
ZG:8
There are a lot of elderly people all of whom no doubt are hoping to be welderly.
Read MoreShredding fat sounds so much more energetic and effective and speedy than just losing it.
ZG: 6
Another term in the area of diets, exercises, the achievement of the body beautiful. And another pill to take.
Read MoreThis is a supposed cure for skin cancer – a paste made from a perennial flowering plant which grows in northeastern America.
ZG: 3
Sadly we can add this to the collection of supposed cures for cancer. There are far too many of them.
Read MoreI think this is an instance of an Australian TV scriptwriter pulling in an Americanism as a bit of colloquial bling.
ZG: 1
Read MoreGiven that there is considerable enthusiasm for keeping people in their own homes as they grow older, the need for the elderly sitter will only increase.
ZG: 7
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