Flexicography
Every year the Macquarie Dictionary opens its gates to let a new batch of marauding words into the Australian language. Not that you need a lexical OK for a word to exist, but it does make infomania and toad juice just a tad more official – and far more kosher to appear in a crossword puzzle as well.
Among the gate-stormers of 2007 were:
arse antlers, plural noun Colloquial a tattoo just above the buttocks, having a central section and curving extensions on each side.
volontourism noun tourism which combines volunteer work with sightseeing. [volun(teer) + tourism]
glass cliff noun the phenomenon whereby individuals who belong to groups which are not well represented in leadership positions, such as women, are more likely to be found in positions which entail a greater than usual risk of failure. [glass (ceiling) + cliff]
floordrobe noun Colloquial (humorous) a floor littered with discarded clothes, viewed ironically as a clothing storage system. [floor + (war)drobe]
Makes you wonder what batch will besiege the castle walls this year. I’ve already heard churnalism (as coined by investigative reporter Nick Davies on the 7.30 Report last week):
Davies: …They just churn this stuff over without having the time to check it, without having the time to decide whether or not this is what they should even be covering today. And it flows into the news and a lot of it is garbage.
And I do have a micro-crush on chuggers – being charity muggers, those people who accost you in the street with rattling cans and occasional koala suits.
Of course the whole blogosphere needs new definition if we’re to advance the digital conversation. What candidates can you proffer for keepable newspeak? Is keepable, say, a keeper? Micro-crush?