We took a short break for our annual Word of the Year competition, but we’re back with five new words to watch. Perhaps some of them will be contenders for Word of the Year 2022?
First up, a pair of words that have to do with appearances. A possible new addition to the set cottagecore, dadcore, normcore, sleazecore and warcore, we have witchcore: a fashion or aesthetic characterised by the presence of aspects of witchcraft. Moving from the supernatural to the mundane, security theatre is the use of safety practices which give the impression of a high protection level without necessarily actually providing it.
Next, two words related to the natural world. A priority species is a plant or animal species which has been classified as requiring particular conservation measures. The federal government has drawn up a list of 100 of them. One animal fortunate enough to not be on that list is the swampy, or swamp wallaby.
For our final word, we’re departing the planet entirely and looking in outer space. But we won’t have to go too far to find a near-Earth object – any small solar-system body with an orbit that brings it into proximity with the earth.
Which of these words do you think are worthy of making it into the Macquarie Dictionary? Let us know.
