Gendy nooch, cozzie livs and murder noodle: Australian words lining up for a Macquarie dictionary de

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Gendy nooch, cozzie livs and murder noodle: Australian words lining up for a Macquarie dictionary debut

This article is more than 8 months old

Linguist says Australians are unique and creative as we ‘take each word and turn it into a diminutive and then put an S on the end’

Gendy nooch, cozzie livs and murder noodle.

According to the Macquarie dictionary, these are the top words to watch for in April as editors weigh up their inclusion in upcoming editions.

Gendy nooch, meaning gender-neutral, cozzie livs, or cost of living, and murder noodle, a venomous snake, have been put up for discussion.

An online shortening of gender-neutral to become 'gendy nooch' is gaining traction. Find more new words here. https://t.co/rO6OF4QuRK pic.twitter.com/3QkYLiNLEA

— Macquarie Dictionary (@MacqDictionary) April 20, 2023

The list also includes tiger toast, toast with a topping of Vegemite and strips of cheese and password child, a child favoured over their siblings, as shown by their name being used in a parent’s digital password.

The dictionary is asking readers to submit new words.

“Each month we choose five from our words-to-watch list that have been submitted either by the public or by us,” said Macquarie Dictionary’s managing editor, Victoria Morgan.

you’re all hating it now but i give it six months before you’re all saying it unironically. gendy nooch https://t.co/ao8FOOcCn6

— Liz Crash (@AsFarce) April 20, 2023

“The words-to-watch list is just a big pool of words that we then go through and we research to see whether they’re actually in use or not.”

But there’s still a long way to go for these to end up in the running for the dictionary’s word of the year, or even in print.

“This is part of our ongoing process … we research these new terms, or they could be older terms but just new to us, to establish where they lie within Australian English if they do at all,” she said.

“So once we do that, then we can actually draft a proper entry and take them off the watch list and put them into the system.”

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While it might have taken off online, Roly Sussex, a linguist from the University of Queensland, said it was highly unlikely any of them would make it as word of the year.

“Word of the year is going to be something which is in enormously wide circulation, and which somehow captures the flavour of the year,” Sussex said.

“Now, in 2013, I think it was selfie, which is an Australian one and actually got up as word of the year for us, in Australia, and for the British.”

Sussex said these terms were uniquely Australian.

“Cozzie livs, meaning cost of living, is in formation because we take each word and turn it into a diminutive and then put an S on the end as if the whole thing is a noun,” he said.

“Which is creative and very typical of us.”

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