Australia's National Dictionary Centre has named "kwaussie" as their word of the year, but many have been left wondering how such an unknown word made the cut.
The word is a portmanteau of Kiwi and Aussie meant to express a person who has duel citizenship or identifies with both countries.
The ANDC explained that "the word came to the Centre’s attention during the constitutional crisis over dual citizenship that engulfed parliament in 2017".
"In a time of covfefe, fake news, and tweetstorms, the Australian National Dictionary Centre has looked for a word of the year that is both lexically interesting and Australian," ANDC Director Dr Amanda Laugesen said.
The word was chosen from a list including;
makarrata – (in traditional Aboriginal culture) a ceremonial ritual that aims to restore peace after a dispute; a ceremony that symbolises such a restoration - an agreement
jumper punch – (chiefly in Australian Rules) an illegal punch disguised as the action of grabbing hold of the opponent’s jumper
postal survey - a survey conducted by post; especially in Australia in 2017, the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey
robodebt - debt incurred as a result of the Department of Human Services automated data matching and debt recovery program
WAxit – a term for the potential or hypothetical departure of Western Australia from the Australian federation
However, many people online have expressed disbelief, questioning how common the word is in real usage.
Before today, the word "kwaussie" appears very sporadically in Google search content, with the word most recently used in August in a Guardian opinion piece during the Barnaby Joyce saga.
Google Trend data is deficient on the word, meaning not enough instances of it have been catalogued to generate usage data.
The ANDC says the word was first used in an unspecified newspaper article from 2002, which labeled Russell Crowe a Kwaussie.
Crowd-sourced definition website Urban Dictionary has had an entry for Kwaussie since October 4, 2016.
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