By Rob O’Brien
The Macquarie Dictionary has announced ‘shovel-ready’ as the Word of the Year for 2009 for inclusion in the annual update of the Macquarie Dictionary Online.
Its meaning: ‘capable of being initiated immediately, as soon as funding is assured’ (of a building or infrastructure project), reflected an issue that dominated 2009, according to the dictionary’s editor.
“The Committee felt that this word was associated with one of the major preoccupations of 2009 — how to avoid a recession,” said Susan Butler, editor of the Macquarie Dictionary.
“Shovel-ready projects were worthy to receive money from the economic stimulus package because they could provide jobs immediately. It was therefore a word that was topical as well as one that provided a graphic mental image.”
In the category of politics, the word ‘head-nodder’ got an honourable mention. The word refers to a supporter of a politician who stands beside them in the frame of a television shot and nods his or her head in agreement with what the speaker is saying.
The People’s Choice Award went to ‘Tweet’, the popular term used for sending a Twitter update.
There were thousands of visitors to the dictionary website in January, drawn by the user survey which closed last week.
The winning word was selected by the Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year Committee chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sydney, Dr Michael Spence.
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