Aussie Life

Language

18 February 2023 9:00 am

I’ve been tracking the way the word ‘racism’ has changed in recent times. Both the word and the concept of…

Aussie life

11 February 2023 9:00 am

The return of the Mardi Gras Parade to Oxford Street after a two-year absence will be welcomed by the majority…

Language

11 February 2023 9:00 am

Lake Superior State University in the US publishes a list of ‘banished words’– terms that have been so misused or…

Aussie life

4 February 2023 9:00 am

Apparently, Melbourne will soon overtake Sydney as Australia’s largest city. I’m not saying this is a good or bad thing,…

Language

4 February 2023 9:00 am

Jeremy Butterfield (the former editor-in-chief of Collins dictionaries) has written recently about nursey rhymes, and how they teach the basics…

Aussie life

28 January 2023 9:00 am

What white Anglo male over the age of 50 can honestly say they’ve never worn a Nazi uniform? When I…

Language

28 January 2023 9:00 am

The Merriam-Webster dictionary people tell me that one of the most looked-up words on their website recently has been ‘archnemesis’…

Aussie life

18 January 2023 10:00 pm

If the Albanese regime is handing out ‘voices’ this year, it might start by giving one to the silent majority…

Language

18 January 2023 10:00 pm

When we speak English is it fair to say that some accents are better (or better in certain contexts) than…

Aussie life

14 January 2023 9:00 am

Anyone reading this magazine for the first time, unaware of its dual citizenship, might easily form the impression that it…

Language

14 January 2023 9:00 am

For some time, the universities of the world have been at the forefront of cancel culture—trying to put woke  blinkers…

Aussie life

7 January 2023 9:00 am

There has been some high-brow analysis of Australian boganhood recently. The 2022 compilation of essays, Class in Australia, where writers…

Language

7 January 2023 9:00 am

The latest edition of The Official Scrabble Players Dictionary (published by Merriam-Webster) has now appeared – and it contains 500…

Aussie life

17 December 2022 9:00 am

It might not be a very net-zero-friendly activity, but driving around to view the Christmas light show is part of…

Language

17 December 2022 9:00 am

It’s Word of the Year time again, when all the dictionaries announce their chosen winner. The Australian National Dictionary Centre…

Aussie life

10 December 2022 9:00 am

‘Where’s the sausage?’ I asked my wife as we lined up at the local primary school to exercise our democratic…

Language

10 December 2022 9:00 am

We are being constantly warned that economic doom, gloom and disaster are about to hit – because of the impact…

Aussie life

3 December 2022 9:00 am

When I wrote on this page recently about Alan Bond’s America’s Cup boxing kangaroo mascot being repurposed by the Australian…

Language

3 December 2022 9:00 am

There is an obsession today with something called ‘diversity and inclusion’. But what do those words really mean? And are…

Aussie life

19 November 2022 9:00 am

It has become the standard practice of Australian property developers to decorate the hoardings around inner-city construction sites with photographs…

Language

19 November 2022 9:00 am

When I was chatting to Peta Credlin on Sky News the question came up of the word ‘normalcy’. It has…

Aussie life

12 November 2022 9:00 am

We are constantly being told that the Uluru Statement is an invitation from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people…

Language

12 November 2022 9:00 am

Is ‘wellness’ really a word? It was coined in America (where else?) in the late 1950s to mean: ‘the state…

Aussie life

5 November 2022 9:00 am

That alcohol-related death rates rose during the pandemic might be the least surprising announcement ever made by the Australian Bureau…

Language

5 November 2022 9:00 am

During the height of the Aids epidemic a body was established called the ‘Aids Council of NSW’. I’m sure in…