Macquarie Dictionary announced yesterday that the word of 2011 is burqini.
burqini (noun) a swimsuit designed for Muslim women, comprising leggings and a tunic top with a hood.
This was voted by a committee that awarded honourable mentions to patchwork economy, dairyness and announceable. Committee members Susan Butler and David Astle shared the following observations on the Word of the Year site:
“Burqini seemed to be a very cute and successful coinage and what lay behind it was a fusion of culture, in an area of life which is so Australian… life on the beach.” – Susan Butler, Editor of Macquarie Dictionary
“As a wordsmith I am delighted by a word that has a Q without U and ends with an I.” – David Astle
There was also a public vote, and the People’s Choice award went to fracking.
fracking noun (in oil and gas mining) a process by which fractures are made in rock by the application under pressure of chemically treated water mixed with sand to natural or man-made openings in order to gain access to oil or gas supplies, considered by some to be associated with groundwater contamination; hydraulic fracturing.
What was your vote for 2011’s word of the year?
I love new words! Ironic really because my vocab is so limited and so poor.
My favourite is ‘food coma’ but I’m really surprised it’s taken this long to become immortalised by Macquarie Dictionary. I first used this word in 1999.