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How would you put the past three years into words? According to the Macquarie Dictionary, phrases like “Barbiecore”, “goblin mode” and “spicy cough” are a pretty apt summary. These playful turns of phrase are among the 3000 new words added to the dictionary’s ninth edition.
Back in 2020, Australians were caught up in conversations about “cancel culture”, “climate strikes” and “Me Too”, all of which were promptly added to the dictionary’s previous edition.
“Spicy cough”, “goblin mode” and “Barbiecore” are an apt summary of the last three years, according to the Macquarie Dictionary.
But since then, we’ve lived through catastrophic fires, the rise of AI and, of course, a global pandemic – all of which have helped shaped what words and phrases the dictionary thinks is worth officially recognising.
Macquarie’s managing editor, Victoria Morgan, says each edition offers a snapshot of what Australians are preoccupied with at any given time, from lighthearted colloquialisms (“bachelor’s handbag”: a takeaway roast chicken) to philosophical musings (“metaverse”: a proposed virtual-reality network allowing movement between different sites, platforms, servers, etc.).
“This edition has been quite distinct with the pandemic and other social trends that people are following. The role of the dictionary is to simply present language as it is currently being used in Australian English,” she says.
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The nation’s vocabulary has drawn inspiration from a plethora of recent major shifts, Morgan says, including COVID-19 and environmental crises like the Black Summer fires and La Niña floods.
“Linguistically, COVID has meant this has been quite a significant point in time. We haven’t had this many terms created by a single crisis or catastrophe pretty much since the world wars,” Morgan says.
Words used to define the chaos of the pandemic, such as “Omicron” (a variant [B.1.351] of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19) and “long COVID” (used to make sense of the chaos that is COVID-19), have been added. But it’s not all technical, with slang terms like “spicy cough” and “menty-b” (a breakdown in one’s mental health) showcasing Australia’s need for levity amid a global health crisis.