Aussie Life
Language
At first glance ‘deafening silence’ looks like an oxymoron – a noun linked to a contradictory adjective. We know all…
Language
I suggest the right word for Hamas is ‘barbarians’. It was the Greeks who coined this word when savage, uncivilised…
Aussie life
Now that the referendum is behind us, we must start doing something about Australia’s burgeoning ICE problem. You wouldn’t know…
Language
They say that in war truth is the first casualty – and the language of truth is certainly being butchered…
Language
The weather bureau tells us that we are now officially in an ‘El Niño event’ and, as a result we…
Aussie life
Timing matters just as much in tragedy as it does in comedy. And it is important to remember that the…
Language
The word ‘special’ means: ‘Exceptional in quality or degree; unusual; out of the ordinary; excelling in some way’ (Oxford English…
Aussie life
The plight of indigenous people is a scab on our nation which worsens with the picking. No one, not even…
Language
Noel Pearson and others have insisted the Voice referendum ‘is not about race’. Does that make sense linguistically? The word…
Aussie life
The death of actor David McCallum last week prompted me to google the theme music for The Man from U.N.C.L.E.,…
Language
A reader has asked me about the common expression ‘virtue-signalling’. The meaning, I think, is fairly clear. It is a…
Aussie life
The word humble comes from the Latin humilis, or humus, meaning literally, soil or ground, a priest recently revealed in…
Language
Every so often I like to share with you new words being added to dictionaries. Dictionary.com has just added 566…
Aussie life
There was a time when Australians prided themselves on their nose for bulls–t and for their willingness to call it…
Language
One of the powers of language is that it can give us the words (the tools) to think about our…
Aussie life
Seven Days in May, a novel written in 1962 and turned into a film in 1964, concerns a planned coup…
Language
I need to loudly lament (once again) the deceptive misuse of the word ‘mistake’ by people who have a black…
Aussie life
Presumably, you don’t get to become head of football’s governing body in a football-mad country like Spain without putting in…
Language
Here’s a brand new Australian political expression I’ve just coined: ‘cane toad politics’. I expect it to take its place…
Aussie life
Six years ago the ABC posted an article online about William Crowther, a prominent 19th-century Tasmanian politician, a statue of…
Language
A national survey has found 64 per cent of Jewish students say they’ve experienced anti-Semitism at university. At Sydney University…
Aussie life
Holding dual Australian and UK citizenship is only problematic when both countries reach the final rounds of a major sporting…
Language
The power (and the usefulness) of language is that it gives us names for ideas. And a name is like…
Aussie life
At the end of the second world war, socialists around the world still believed in the inevitable overthrow of capitalism…
Language
We all know J.R.R. Tolkien from his epic The Lord of the Rings, voted best novel of the 20th century.…
