Make Your Words Matter | TEXT100 and TEDx
Yesterday the Macquarie Dictionary team attended the Text100 event at the Botanical Gardens in Sydney to discuss all things words in 2017, in line with the theme: Make Your Words Matter.
Blogs
The language of Dickens
In my years as a dictionary editor I have found that one thing that stirs the imagination of an audience and puts a certain light in their eyes is the notion that they might make up a word that gets into the dictionary. I think that what stirs them is the desire to make their mark and leave it for posterity. Read more…
Should these words go in the Macquarie Dictionary?
We are always on the lookout for new, emerging and interesting words to add to the Macquarie Dictionary. In a time of global instant communication, these words are popping up faster and in vaster quantities than ever before. Read more words from November 2017 here…
How did language develop?
We all know that babies learn language from their parents. Indeed if they are deprived of this language learning – as happened with children who were lost and lived in the wild – then they find it very difficult to learn language when they are much older and rediscovered. Read more…
Have a magical Halloween
This Halloween, we’re thinking about one of our favourite suffixes, -mancy. Meaning ‘divination’, there are many fascinating words depicting the craft of what is in some cases very specific forms of fortune telling. These are largely older words, but we’ve picked a few of the best. Let us know of any new words (we’ve got our eye on technomancy and lexicomancy is starting to look pretty good too) that relate to divination. Read more…
Should these words go in the Macquarie Dictionary?
We are always on the lookout for new, emerging and interesting words to add to the Macquarie Dictionary. In a time of global instant communication, these words are popping up faster and in vaster quantities than ever before. Read more words from October 2017 here…
Is it a field or a paddock? Defining the contemporary Australian landscape.
The early European settlers had much to find words for in the Australian landscape and their choice was either to borrow from Aboriginal languages (kangaroo, dingo, budgerigar, coolibah) or take a word from British English, often British dialect, and stretch the original meaning to the new shape (wattle, creek, magpie, paddock). Read more…
Another bout of un-Australian
It’s been a while since a politician has resorted to branding their opponents as un-Australian but we had an instance of it recently with Immigration Minister Peter Dutton applying it to pro-bono lawyers defending refugees. It has to be said that he was prompted to do it by radio broadcaster Alan Jones but he took it up willingly enough. Read more…
Reshaping borrowed words in English
English borrows from many languages, but it has more trouble digesting some borrowed words than others. Of late we seem to have taken on board many more words from Japanese, mostly to do with food and drink. Read more…
Should these words go in the Macquarie Dictionary?
We are always on the lookout for new, emerging and interesting words to add to the Macquarie Dictionary. In a time of global instant communication, these words are popping up faster and in vaster quantities than ever before. Read more…
When do words borrowed into English become English?
You would think that the answer to this would be ‘after a suitable period of time’. For example, table comes from tabula, borrowed into Old English from Classical Latin. Read more…
Word wranglers: Meet the team behind the Macquarie Dictionary
Darryn King dropped by the office to have a chat with our editorial team about what goes on behind the scenes.
Read the full article | The Monthly, July 2017
Note: This article is behind The Monthly’s paywall.
Should these words go in the Macquarie Dictionary?
We are always on the lookout for new, emerging and interesting words to add to the Macquarie Dictionary. In a time of global instant communication, these words are popping up faster and in vaster quantities than ever before. Read more…
One person, two people, three persons, four?
A dictionary reader asked about the distinction between persons and people, both indicating plurality but having different connotations.
If we start with the etymologies of the two words we can see that they are coming from different directions… Read more…
Invent an Aussie collective noun!
Tweet us, comment and tag us in your most imaginative, outlandish and of course, fitting new terms. We’ve got a list of animals below, but don’t stop there, we want your most obscure, clever, interesting and fun takes on what makes an Aussie collective noun.
We’ll give our favourite entries prizes from the new Seventh Edition Macquarie Dictionary range. Read more…
Celebrating language for NAIDOC Week
This NAIDOC Week, we’re celebrating by sharing some fun facts around the many different Aboriginal languages and cultures in Australia. Read more…
Should these words go in the Macquarie Dictionary?
We are always on the lookout for new, emerging and interesting words to add to the Macquarie Dictionary. In a time of global instant communication, these words are popping up faster and in vaster quantities than ever before. Read more…
Language that is blue – or green – whatever you fancy
The different meanings of colour words normally flow from their basic sense and are self-evident.
Blue for the old-fashioned washing powder came about because it turned blue in water. A blue for a sporting award came about because the ribbon with which the person or animal was draped was blue. Read more…