100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

100% Locally Owned, Independent and Free

Sami Muirhead's pick of the new words added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary

Do you have a news tip? Click here to send to our news team.

Ashley Robinson: the right and wrongs of life

It is time to try a social experiment regarding relationships. Since writing in this publication I have lifted the profile of George, my four-legged More

Jane Stephens: young miss out on joys of youth

Youth is wasted on the young, they say. But if ever there was a time to be a fledgling in this world, now is More

Ashley Robinson: it’s all about the little things

The recent Nambour show is a constant reminder to me about parenting and relationships with your kids, family and friends. It highlights what is actually More

Sami Muirhead: on a wing and a prayer

Wish me luck. I am airborne and Bali-bound this week, on a special pilgrimage to take my dad’s ashes to Indonesia. I am going with my More

Ashley Robinson: ‘love ya, Queensland, just as you are’

It was remiss of me not to write this column two weeks ago, for the June 6 edition, as it was Queensland Day: the More

Jane Stephens: the facts, plain and simple

Mincing words is overrated. Bamboozling people with purple prose is overdone. Using weasel words is just plain rude. The clouds have gathered in our lexicon and More

Word nerds, unite! Merriam-Webster added more than 500 definitions to the dictionary this year. So, let’s debrief on five words I think we will all need to be aware of for the rest of 2021.

‘Awe walk’ is top of my list. The official definition is taking a walk outside and trying to really take in all the things around you. For me personally, I get more excited on a lunchtime on Thursdays when it is takeaway Vietnamese spring roll day at work and I awe walk my belly down in the lift to buy my hot rolls of goodness. I have also been spotted at the bottle shop awe walking the aisles of gin.

Word number two on our list is ‘adulting’. Sigh. Adulting is hard to do and its loose definition is when you want to watch Netflix for six hours at night and eat cheese and fish fingers for dinner, but instead you decide to read to the kids and do the washing and make school lunches. I repeat: adulting is hard.

Our third word is ‘doomscrolling’, where you scroll through electronic news expecting it all to be bad. Well, is that really a new concept? The first thing I was taught at university is to write about the one plane that crashed and not the 99 that landed safely.

‘Quaranteen’ is also on the list. It refers to teenagers who are in quarantine or doing lockdown with your family. Usually the teenager is moody and only leave their room to make ridiculous demands for more food and more data for their TikTok.

‘Thirsty’ is on the list and refers to the need for attention or approval. I know what you are thinking: doesn’t thirsty mean needing to drink? Well, Merriam-Webster added a new definition of the word meaning a strong desire for attention – especially on social media. This is an example of how to use thirsty: my co-worker has posted four pictures of herself in a bikini this weekend, so she is clearly thirsty for us all to know she is still rocking a bikini.

And the last one is ‘WFH’.  It stands for work from home. Thanks to the pandemic, many of us are working from home, which means we are probably spending more time adulting and doomscrolling and awe walking, while the kids are definitely quaranteening more in their rooms.

Subscribe to SCN’s free daily news email

This field is hidden when viewing the form
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
[scn_go_back_button] Return Home
Share