Posts Tagged: auspol

  • Image of a norman soldier saying "bi god" the suggested origin of bigot

    Bigot by god

    This week (26 June 2025) in the NSW parliament, Premier Chris Minns called former Labor MLC Mark Latham “Australia’s biggest bigot.” The accusation was part of a fiery speech from the lower house about hate speech laws and their blockage in the upper house. Bigot origins The origin of “bigot” is not entirely clear. The […]

  • Caption: KAKISTOCRACY "government by the least qualified or most unscrupulous citizens" AI generated image

    What is the word of the year 2024 — WOTY24?

    I love this time of the year for so many reasons but the most exciting is the release of the world’s major dictionaries’ words of the year (WOTY24). I keep my radar out all year for words that might be reflect the times and I look to the dictionary houses to do the deep research. […]

  • Teal (n.) "small freshwater duck," early 14c., of uncertain origin, probably from an unrecorded Old English word cognate with Middle Dutch teling "teal," Middle Low German "telink", from West Germanic "taili".

    TEAL TEAL TEAL—lining up the political ducks

    Independents win multiple seats in the Australian 2022 election The 2022 Australian election is over probably much to everyone’s relief. The undeniable word of the election though, has to be TEAL (but do you know what it really means?). The self-identified Teal candidates have taken multiple “blue-ribbon” seats off the Liberal Party. The Liberal Party’s […]

  • the second most important event of 2020 was the US election played out in against the back-drop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.

    WORD OF THE YEAR 2020—POLITICS AND THE US ELECTION

    Perhaps the second most important event of 2020 was the US election played out against the back-drop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Here we look at words from politics and the US election for 2020  (I have borrowed a photo from the Trump Tie Meme). The OED reported that in the early […]

  • Joh Bjelke Peterson, the Hillbilly Dictator of Queensland was famous for Bjelkemandering

    Gerrymandering and malapportionment

    Following on from last week’s American political terms (pork barrelling and boondoggle) I have been researching another wonderful political term we have adopted from the US—gerrymander. I am sure that you have heard of it as it is often thrown around in Australian politics although we use it quite differently to the Americans. Origin of […]

  • Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull pork barrellers together

    Pork barrelling their boondoggles

    You have to love the elections. Even if the politicians are failing to stir us with soaring words our journalists are at least trying to create some interest with theirs. Townsville football stadium Earlier this week (13 June 2016) Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised $100 million for a new Townsville football stadium saying it was […]

  • Peter "Duffer" Dutton has been almost universally accused of dog-whistling, a political form of doublespeak.

    Dog-whistle politics

    The word of this week’s Australian election campaign would have to be dog-whistle. Immigration Minister, Peter Dutton (previously nicknamed “Duffer”) has been accused of political dog-whistling by the media for a spectacularly inept tirade about migrants in an interview on Sky TV (here reported on ABC Radio) on 17 May 2016: “For many people, they […]

  • TEXT: Money can't buy happiness but it can buy beer, wine, chocolate and cake which are close approximations. Affluenza is the post.

    Money can buy you affluenza

    According to experts more and more Australians are suffering from affluenza. The word was coined in the mid-1990s and is a portmanteau of affluence and influenza. Affluenza, also known as luxury fever, is the psychological malaise suffered by wealthy people characterised by lack of motivation and feelings of guilt. Sufferers exhibit a lack of satisfaction […]

  • Tony Abbott with a speech bubble saying "... the suppository of all knowledge" with a group of incredulous journalists in an image bubble looking at a suppository

    Mr Abbott becomes Mr Malaprop

    In one of my previous posts, Improving your vocabulary using malapropisms, I wrote a tongue-in-cheek passage using as many common malapropisms as I could squeeze into the post. A malapropism is an incorrect word that sounds like the word that should have been used. The post was about choosing your words carefully and I described […]

  • Ostensibly pinocchio

    The meaning of ostensible may not be apparent

    Ostensible is such a wonderful word. Its Latin origin gives it an air of sophistication and it rolls so easily of the tongue. It is a word that is stacked with subtlety and diplomacy. Ostensible invitations, such as “we must catch up”, are invitations used socially as a way of showing courtesy or saving face, […]

  • Photoshopped picture of Leo Rosten—colorised and with a NY background added

    Are you confident in the meaning of chutzpah?

    This week [2 February 2013] we investigated chutzpah, a Yiddish word made popular by the American writer, Leo Rosten, and now absorbed into all forms of English. In an article about the partner of Julia Gillard, then Australian Prime Minister, Tim Mathieson (often designated Australia’s “First Bloke”) the author rather unfavourably compares him to other spouses […]

  • We all hate misogyny

    We all hate misogyny

    Misogyny is all over the news. It is a topic that  Julia Gillard, the Australian Labor Prime Minister, has used to discredit the Leader of the Liberal Opposition, Tony Abbott. She has managed to get traction in the media both in Australia and internationally by painting Abbott as a misogynist. The issue follows from the resignation […]