It’s that time again, when highlights of the year-that-was start to appear. Not that anyone really needs to be reminded about 2020 (or probably wants to remember!).
It should be no surprise then, that the Aussie word of the year is covid related. Our word is… *drum roll* …ISO.
In typical Aussie style we have shortened “self-isolation” to iso – and it only took us until March this year to have done so. It’s used in the same way, “I’m in iso”. But we also use it as a pre-fix, eg iso workout or iso haircut.
Shortening words is the norm in Oz. We shorten everything:
– Maccas (McDonalds, who have finally accepted our Aussie naming)
– firies (firemen)
– sanga (sandwich)
– g’day (good day)
– ute (utility vehicle)
But what we really love to do is to shorten and add an “o” onto the end of the word (luckily iso comes with its “o” already in place):
– garbo (garbage man)
– dero (derelict)
– arvo (afternoon)
– doco (documentary)
– servo (service station – what we call a gas station in Australia)
– bottle-o (liquor store)
– journo (journalist)
– aggro (aggressive)
– muso (musician)
– rego (registration for your car)
– devo (devestated)
– ambo (ambulance)
– avo (avocado)
– roo (kangaroo)
– reno (renovation)
– smoko (from smoke break, now more a short break for a cuppa)
– compo (compensation)
– typo (typing error)
What do you think the word of the year should be?
November 19, 2020 at 1:24 am
LOL the word of the year for me is “uuuuuggghhhhhh”
November 19, 2020 at 11:54 am
I think that would be the vote for a lot of people! Hopefully 2021 will be a better year (really hoping these vaccines make it)!
November 19, 2020 at 2:53 am
Didn’t know that about Aussies. Bostonians (living in Boston, Massachusetts) are like that too. It’s tempting not to adopt this approach.
November 19, 2020 at 11:54 am
I didn’t know that about Bostonians. We shorten everything (unless it is a short word, then we tend to lengthen it, lol).
November 19, 2020 at 8:05 am
Some of those words have made it to the US. Not all, but a couple of them I recognized. I think iso is a good one for you. I’m rather fond of calling the plague “the rona”. I don’t know who started it.
November 19, 2020 at 11:55 am
I have heard “rona” but only once or twice. We tend to just call it covid here.
November 19, 2020 at 11:05 am
I’ve heard people use reno and typo, but the rest of your list is wonderfully exotic to my ears 🙂
Iso seems the perfect word for this year, if only because we’re all too exhausted to string together more syllables!
I better not say what I think the word for 2020 should be…
November 19, 2020 at 11:56 am
Haha, Jenny, I can only imagine what you think the word should be 😉 Mind you, the States have had to contend with a lot more than just covid this year *shaking head*.
November 21, 2020 at 9:03 am
No kidding. It has been exhausting!
November 19, 2020 at 2:26 pm
Haha for sure!!! We are heading straight for another lock down lol yay us!
November 19, 2020 at 8:04 pm
I think we’ll see lockdowns on and off until we are all vaccinated. This is life…for now!
November 19, 2020 at 11:30 pm
Yes for sure!!