THE colloquial language ozlingo is alive, well and precocious.

[Kiwi]

A word to the wise, this is just for fun

Tony Stephens
January 10, 2008


THE colloquial language ozlingo is alive, well and precocious.

Try these new words in the Macquarie Dictionary for a lesson: credit card tart, tanorexia, salad dodger, floordrobe, silent disco, lady garden, Chindia, carbon footprint, grapple tackle.

Grapple tackle describes an illegal action in rugby league in which an opponent is held around the head and neck. Carbon footprint is the carbon dioxide emissions for which an individual or organisation can be held responsible.

Chindia means China and India considered as a unit. A credit card tart transfers a loan from one account to another as the first account is about to expire. Tanorexia, salad dodger and lady garden all relate to the body — an obsession to have tanned skin, an obese person and a woman's pubic area.

Floordrobe is a floor littered with discarded clothes. Silent disco a disco in which dancers wear headphones to listen the music.

The dictionary yesterday asked Australians to vote for a word of the year — the most valuable contribution to the English language in 2007 — choosing from new words included in the annual update of the Macquarie Dictionary Online. Five words or phrases have been nominated in different categories, including colloquialisms, politics, eating and drinking, fashion, technology, the environment, sport, health, business and music.

The dictionary's publisher, Susan Butler, said: "This year there is a strong presence of words related to the environment and how we think we are going to manage the environment."

Nominations include:

■Infomania: the tendency to give immediate attention to incoming email and text messages, resulting in constant distraction.

■Man flu: a minor cold contracted by a man who exaggerates the symptoms enormously.

■Manscaping: a grooming procedure in which hair is shaved or trimmed from a man's body.

■Password fatigue: frustration reached by having too many different passwords to remember.

http://macquariedictionary.com.au

[AussieJTFer]

These nominations are all gay, they're not even proper Aussie lingo anyway.

[Kiwi]

I liked the man flu one