In a natural experiment it is possible to identify a life situation in which there is a particular factor at work, and compare that to another life situation in which that factor is not present. It is like setting up an experiment with randomly selected people in it. A comparison of one situation with another should determine the effect of the factor that interests you.

ZG: 5

It may be that now that the benefit of natural experiments has been demonstrated, they will be taught in schools along with the traditional scientific experiment.

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It is clear that ick comes from icky but at this point the Oxford English Dictionary throws up its hands in helplessness and says ‘origin uncertain’. However, the example sentences show that icky is a word of the jazz scene in America in the 1930s and describes music that is over-sweet and sentimental, music that a true lover of swing jazz despises. The suggestion is that it was pretend baby talk meaning ‘little’.

ZG: 7

There is a lot of discussion about the ick among the younger generation, although their elders probably prefer to talk about a real turn-off.

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Remember the days when children had piggybanks and were encouraged to save the odd coins that kindly relatives gave them? It seems that today’s five-year olds have tossed their piggybanks aside in favour of investing money on the stock exchange.

ZG: 4

High finance is not for every child so this word has low frequency — at least for the time being.

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I suspect the distinction between hard pants and soft pants has been around for a little while but the fact that so many of us are now returning to the office has brought it to the forefront. It is clear that the comfortable trakkie daks that we lived in at home will not do. The world of soft pants has been lost and the antonym, hard pants, has been created.

ZG: 8

The things that we need to find a name for can be surprising, but there is no doubting the depth of feeling behind this one. It is possibly complicated by the fact that many of us have put on weight during lockdown.

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The yarning circle has long been a feature of Indigenous culture but in recent times the practice has been borrowed into health and education more widely. In Indigenous culture the circle forms so that the people in it can speak freely and honestly. From the heart.

ZG: 6

It is encouraging that we are finding and adopting useful ways of teaching and learning in Indigenous practice, rather than regarding everything non-European as worthless.

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The device is so new that, while the brand names are clear, the generic name hasn’t quite settled yet. Electric water bike, water e-bike, hydrofoil bike – there are various names.

ZG: 4

Probably if you already have a jet ski, your next purchase might be a water bike.

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A recent ABC article described this as something experienced by people with pre-existing mental health conditions. While I am sure that those who suffer from anxiety and depression will find their condition exacerbated by the current loosening of COVID restrictions, the malaise is being felt much more widely.

ZG: 10

The malaise is widespread although not everyone has put this name to it.

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Weather forecasting has improved markedly at predicting the weather days and even weeks ahead, relying on the analysis of a mass of data about the movements of fluids in the atmosphere. It is not, however, good at the very short-term forecast.

ZG: 5

We are probably interested in having this information available to us even if we are not up with the jargon of meteorology.

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J. B. Priestley isolated nitrous oxide in 1772, but it was the chemist and inventor, Humphry Davy who, in 1799, wrote a poem about it, having explored what the gas did to him by taking large quantities of it.

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There are arguments for and against the idea that anyone should be required to get vaccinated. However, it became clear that there were certain groups who were passing on the virus more than others.

ZG: 9

There is much heat generated in this debate at the moment and it will get worse as the states open up.

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This is a new treatment for COVID-19, also referred to as the COVID antiviral pill or, even less frequently, as the COVID-19 antiviral pill. Its official name is molnupiravir. It is an anti-virus agent, originally developed to treat influenza.

ZG: 9

It is hoped that this will make quite a difference in how we cope with COVID so it will be a household term.

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This is an exclamation with the sense of ‘Gotcha!’ or “Just kidding!” which we have belatedly picked up from American English where it first appeared in the 1980s.

ZG: 8

Fashion in language is important. Refreshing and revitalising your exclamations with this can give it an added zing. Perhaps.

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This is the situation at a hospital which is overwhelmed by the number of patients arriving by ambulance. They cannot process them fast enough in emergency so the ambulances are forced to park and wait, sometimes for hours, until a bed becomes free.

ZG: 8

This has become important as an indicator of the unsustainable pressure on hospitals as COVID cases rise.

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The internal wave is more akin to the pattern created by a ball rolling off a step and then bouncing back up, falling and bouncing up repeatedly.

ZG: 4

A scientific term that had some general currency in the news reporting of the Indonesian submarine that sank.

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Australia has joined those countries labelled ‘climate laggards’ in the last couple of years. It seems that climate laggard has followed in the wake of technology laggard, a popular phrase of five years ago for those businesses and organisations that refused to keep up with the changes brought about by the IT revolution.

ZG: 7

Obviously we don’t like to hear ourselves described as climate laggards, but, as things stand, we should probably get used to it.

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Fin as the shortened form of financial is getting to work and making new compounds. First we had fintech. Now we have finfluencer which is a blend of the fin- prefix and influencer.

ZG: 7

Will we be referring our financial queries to influencers rather than to our accountants in the future?

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This is a new variant of the COVID-19 virus as described in the media with the emphasis on how much more infectious or deadly it might be.

ZG: 6

This is an attempt to push back against the unnecessary panic created by media reports of new variants. Whether it will bring the heart rate of the general public back to somewhere near normal remains to be seen.

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The concept of the fixated person as a person worthy of scrutiny by the police was one which arose from the Lindt Café siege.

ZG: 5

A legal term which will pop up from time to time. Rarely, we hope.

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The weather event that brought this to our attention this year occurred in Canada where a heat dome settled for five days, causing hundreds of deaths, contributing to wildfires, and wreaking havoc on marine life.

ZG: 6

We are likely to have heat domes in Australia this summer (certainly more heat waves are predicted) so we will become more familiar with this term.

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It seems that it is time for slang names for the police, such as the cops or the rozzers, to make way for the latest American import which is the popo. This is a Californian slang term from the 1980s which has taken a little while to become popular here.

ZG: 7

This one is clearly a bit of fashionable slang that is on the rise.

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