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 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 MoreIn politics the Westminster bubble and the Washington bubble predate the Canberra bubble by a couple of decades.
ZG: 7
We are likely to hear more about the Canberra bubble in the electioneering that awaits us.
Read MoreL-plate leader, L-plate politician. These epithets have become a very Australian way of deriding our politicians.
ZG: 6
High marks for Australian connotations but low marks as just another bit of sloganeering emerging from Canberra.
Read MoreThere are many cities that can see the benefits of re-fitting their drainage systems to reduce water run-off and increase water storage.
ZG: 9
Given the intensity of the downpours that we have had recently in cities across Australia, and the ensuing chaos, I think that this is a concept that should rate highly.
Read MoreThe dictionary already has IaaS (infrastructure as a service) and Saas (software as a service). This term, MaaS, stands for mobility as a service.
ZG: 4
An important concept but one that is perhaps a too technical to have much currency.
Read MoreThis seems to have become popular in the jargon of business and politics where it means a point at which there is intense tension and conflict.
ZG: 5
A catchy bit of jargon but not hugely significant. Alliteration always gives a phrase staying power.
Read MoreA zombie contract or zombie agreement is effectively dead, and yet it lives on in an organisation, being automatically renewed with little thought or consideration being given to it.
ZG: 4
A colourful term but one with limited use in corporate jargon.
Read MorePlogging is the combination of jogging with picking up litter. It began as a Swedish activity but has gone around the world.
ZG: 4
I have not seen a plogger yet on the track that I can see from my window. When I see one I will up my enthusiasm.
Read MoreWe are by now used to seeing people practising with drones in the park and think of them as the latest toy. But imagine a whole lot drones, laden with explosives, swarming on a target.
ZG: 6
The uses for drones seem to have proliferated. Some of them are good, some are very bad.
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 MoreWe have seen the rise of vertical family living, the increase in the number of families with small children occupying apartments in high-rise buildings close to the city centre.
ZG: 7
Anything to do with shifts in housing patterns is big news in Australia.
Read MoreI foresee that this word is going to cause a heap of trouble in the future because there are two moonshots with two different etymologies which have already become confused.
ZG: 5
This seems to be a buzzword of the moment in certain circles, but possibly not one with wide currency.
Read MoreIt seems that all governments have one, these days. This is a unit that devises interventions based on behavioural science to persuade citizens to do what is considered desirable.
ZG: 7
It seems scary to contemplate a future where we think that we are acting from our own free will but in fact are being manipulated to do so. Even if the intentions are good.
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 MoreThe social robot robot of the future will have a pleasant smile and an urbane manner, and be sensitive to our moods and needs.
ZG: 5
Developments in robotics are happening at speed but, even if I do end up with a robot that smiles at me, I suspect that I won’t rate it highly.
Read MoreWe would like to hope that all medicine combines an accurate diagnosis with an effective treatment, so we need to explain what precisely is meant by the term precision medicine.
ZG: 8
This will transform medical practice of the future.
Read MoreTo fasten up is a new compound verb that has moved from a computer context to general language. We can expect more fastening up in the future.
ZG: 5
The notion of fasten meaning ‘to increase the speed of’ rather than ‘to attach or fix’ seems slightly shocking, but I am surprised by how quickly I can get used to it.
Read MoreThe sacrifice paddock is one way of dealing with the fact that in drought sheep will graze land down to bare earth, but increasingly the preferred option is the droughtlot.
ZG: 8
With the number and severity of droughts increasing, we can expect new strategies to emerge for deaiing with it.
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