Culture

The 2017 Word Of The Year Is Total Nonsense And People Hate It

It has literally never been used in a sentence before.

by Patrick Lenton  4 December 2017
Word of the Year

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

It’s been a year of turmoil and rubbish, so it seems fitting that the newly chosen word of the year is equally as dumb.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre has chosen “Kwaussie” as the official word of  2017, despite the fact that Kwaussie is not a word that anyone has ever used or even heard.

Kwaussie is a portmanteau meant to denote a person who is a dual citizen of Australia and New Zealand, a New Zealander living in Australia, or a person of Australian and New Zealand descent. Finally, an ugly mashed-up word that represents the beautiful friendship between our two great antipodean nations.

Obviously the word takes on greater context considering the dual citizenship crisis that has ripped through our parliament, with notable “Kwaussies” being prevented from holding office including Scott Ludlam and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce. That still doesn’t mean that anyone has actually used it before.

Or have they? Dr Laugesen from the Australian National Dictionary Centre said that Kwaussie was first used in 2002 by a New Zealand newspaper in relation to actor Russell Crowe.

“He was described as a Kwaussie — what you get when you cross a Kiwi who can’t decide whether they’re a Kiwi or an Aussie,” she said.

Kwaussie managed to triumph over several other shortlisted words for its coveted title, including “postal survey”and “robodebt”, which are both examples of other political and cultural events that swept the nation during the past year. They’re also both words that have been used in a sentence before, although it could be argued that they are best forgotten by humans and dictionaries alike.

Dr Laugesen said that the word was “very popular on social media”, but social media seems to violently disagree. It feels like dictionaries might have run out of all the good words and are desperately scrambling for content?