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Calling All Adorkables

22 December, 2015

Macquarie Dictionary is guarding its long-list for Word of the Year. But the DA site can provide a few sneak peeks before the Big Reveal on January 21. The first bunch of words below, in fact, hails from that secret ballot sheet, while the next set are words (I reckon) should be on the list.

If you missed the TV circus, I spoke more about neologisms on News Breakfast this morning. (A regular Tuesday gig through high summer.) Of course, feel free to add your own nominations for 2015 - like pub test, or push poll, or goat-cheese curtain. And to scratch your word-itch, who can devise the best clue for these neonates, including both definition and wordplay?

LUMBERSEXUAL - hipster subcult affecting a virile, outdoorsy air

BEARD BAUBLES - more hipster affectation, as is...

...MERMAN HAIR - where blue/green dyes feign a triton look

ATHLEISURE - exercise clothing that can pass as streetwear

DESO - short for designated driver

SWAGGY - confident, often expressed via an open, hip-swinging gait

UNDORSE - fiscal (or political) backflip

MANSPREADING - being a macho 'space invader' on a bus seat

++

VEEDUBBING - covert manipulation of software to create a false positive

NERDJACKING - derailing conversation with excessive geekery

DISCONNECTIONIST - digital detox practitioner 

BOOGAN - mouth-breather determined to scorn Adam Goodes

LAWNMOWER PARENT - parent who flattens all problems in a child's path

NEWSZAK - entertainment show posing as a news service

FOGO - Fear (Fatigue) Of Going Out, where staying in with home comforts trumps the helter-skelter of the real world

TSUNDOKU - the habitual art of buying books and piling them neglected beside your bed. (Japanese: reading pile)

This may will be our final Storm of 2015. So merry eponym all dabblers, and thanx for such a mercurial year of word-wrangling & creative contributions.

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Text-speak is creeping into Scrabble. Where do you sit?
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