The Macquarie Dictionary COVID Word of the Year is rona. The word was chosen from a list of 20 COVID-related words. You can see the shortlist below. Though there are 15 categories in this year’s Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year, we decided to create a special COVID category to isolate the huge number of … Read more
2020, am I right? Well, we aren’t going to sit around and wait for another year to clobber us, and we aren’t going to get sucked in to a doomscrolling vortex either, no way. Together we will shirtfront 2021! Shirtfronting is an act of intimidation, whether confronting someone aggressively and indignantly with a complaint or grievance, or … Read more
Fashion! It never goes out of style, that’s why this week’s Word of the Week is the Darwin rig, more commonly known as a Territory rig. The rig is the peculiar formal dress used in the Top End by men. Essentially, as it is so hot in the Top End, there is no need for a jacket. Territorians replace … Read more
This week we are buying tickets to the cow-pat lotto, a form of lottery in which a cow is placed in a pristine paddock which has been divided into squares which are numbered and raffled off. The winner is decided by the fall of the first cow-pat. While waiting for the plop to drop so to speak, … Read more
This week we are closing up shop early on our suburban shopping strip and heading across the road to the bowlo for a few schooners and a game of lawn bowls. Chiefly an Eastern states word, bowlo is short for bowling club. Aussies love pubs and clubs, and why not? You’ll find just about everything you … Read more
At the Macquarie Dictionary, we are preparing to announce which word survived the battle royale of 2020 to come out on top as Word of the Year. Cancel culture claimed the crown in 2019, while Me Too took the top prize in 2018. Although we can’t go there, I can confirm that the rest of the world still exists and … Read more
This week we are investigating a rort, that is, a trick, lurk, or underhanded scheme: a confidence trick. We have looked at this before through the eyes of then Editor, Sue Butler. As a verb, rort means to swindle or dupe. Part of Aussie slang since at least the 1910s, rort is a backformation from rorter. It is now … Read more
Are you a couple of lamingtons short of a CWA meeting? We hope not, because this ingenious phrase means stupid, as in lacking a full complement of intelligence. It’s also a little sad, because who wants to attend a meeting that lacks delicious lamingtons? The phrase is part of a long line of short of … Read more
Surf’s up. Grab your board and catch the five o’clock wave, a fictitious wave that passes down the Murrumbidgee River in Wagga Wagga each day. The wave is supposedly created by the release of water from an upriver dam. The tale is told to unwary visitors. If you get your surfboard and hurry down to Wagga Beach … Read more
Ah, the smell of peak hour traffic, don’t you just love it? Well, no, but while you’re on the school run, you might find yourself surrounded by a fleet of Balmain bulldozers. A Balmain bulldozer is a derogatory term for a city-only four-wheel drive. This is a vehicle owned by someone living in an urban area and … Read more
