Toxic debt brought to book
February 4th, 2009 - 12:01 pm ICT by IANSSydney, Feb 4 (DPA) Toxic debt has beaten bromance and textaholic to become Australia’s Word of the Year, contest organiser Macquarie Dictionary announced Wednesday.Defined as lending that “proves subsequently to be financially worthless”, the term won the title because of it’s notoriety as the root cause of the financial crisis still shaking economies around the world.
Macquarie publisher Sue Butler said that “as a lexical creation (it has) a visceral impact”.
The selection committee gave honourable mentions to bromance, which describes a non-sexual friendship between two males, and textaholic, someone who sends an inordinate number of text messages.
Also in the mix was flashpacker, a descriptor for a backpacker who stays in luxury hotels, and fanta pants, for someone who’s a natural redhead.
All terms on the shortlist will appear in the next issue of the dictionary.
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- New Words Added To Dictionary in 2010 Gets Tech Oriented - Dec 19, 2010
- 'Shovel-ready' crowned Macquarie Dictionary's word of the year for 2009 - Feb 03, 2010
- "BESTIES", "boyzilian wax" among 1000 new words in 5th Macquarie Dictionary! - Oct 27, 2009
- 'Don't shake hands with Muslims' - Dec 15, 2011
- Good times for 'bromance' in Bollywood - Aug 05, 2011
- English language has doubled in size over last century - Dec 17, 2010
- SMS abrviations pav way for hol new languaj - Jun 26, 2009
Tags: australia, backpacker, descriptor, dictionary, dpa, financial crisis, friendship, inordinate number, luxury hotels, natural redhead, next issue, notoriety, root cause, selection committee, shortlist, sydney, text messages, visceral impact
