In order to keep up with changing times, Macquarie Dictionary is looking for new words to add to its collection. As editor Susan Butler says, “The words that a language community chooses to use end up being, collectively, a mirror to the changes that are happening around us. The task of the dictionary is to keep track of these changes as one way of recording our culture.”
To achieve this, Macquarie Dictionary is taking submissions from its readers for words they use and hear on a frequent basis. Twelve of these submissions include:
Transracial: being born one race but identifying as another
Extra: being ridiculous, ashamed, over the top
WAxit: the succession of Western Australia from the Australian federation
Blackwashing: casting a ‘traditionally’ white character with a black actor
Solarpunk: a genre of fiction in which the future is depicted as a positive balance between humanity and the environment
Manterruption: when a man interrupts a woman because they think they have a better point of view or want to discredit the woman
Splinternet: the breaking up of the internet between national and regional lines
Glo up: a makeover or transformation from drab to fab
Hepeated: when an idea is ignored when suggested by a woman and loved when suggested by a man
Oversharenting: when parents share too much of their children’s lives on social media
Throuple: a romantic relationship between three people
Xennial: the generation between X and millenials, born between 1977 and 1983
What do you think – do we need these words?