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Diabolically Arcane

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New Words

13 January, 2012

I was like, totes shocked when the Macquarie Dictionary enlisted my services for its Word of the Year Committee. While I can’t betray my voting alleigances, since this could be a ding-dong between devo and cloud, I can report that voting is open to all, right this minute. Get your X in here.

At the same address you’ll find batches of five words listed under 16 categories, from Arts to Technology. Some nominess catch the eye, like tweep, burqini, food porn, junk time, planking and e-bomb. Others will incite a weary yada-yada, or a furrowed brow. Ever hear the likes of:

argan oil

shill bidding

NAIRU

plonk horse

meteogram

achacha

Or maybe you’ll be shocked to realise a new word is not listed, such as tiger mother (my shock). Then bleat about the omission here. I promise to take your plaint as envoi to the round table in February.

To hear how the Oxford and rival dictionaries swung in this caper, catch this Triple-R podcast, where The Enthusiast gang of Mel Campbell, Andrew Tijs and Dan Zugna (love those surnames) unfurl the honour roll. Or try this other poddie to hear about more words, Pinocchio, pub ghosts and some dictionary guy banging on about charade clues.

So what word is new around your neck of the woods? Or maybe you’ve detected an old word on the rise? Pass on the street-level goss.

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Riddledom Rave

If you missed my riddle chat with Richard Fidler, then feel free to slurp the podcast at http://ab.co/1I9t1x5

Text-speak is creeping into Scrabble. Where do you sit?
OBVS I'm fine with it
Entrenched stuff - like LOL and OMG - but no more.
Words With Friends, maybe. Scrabble, no
Let the 'real' dictionaries decide first
Just the handy stuff, like FAQ and EUW
I mean, WTF?! No way
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