Are you using the latest slang or are you just reheating nachos?

July 26, 2026 — 5:00am

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Mid-year, words nerds of the world tend to gather in rooms or Zoom, a chance to list what neologisms have emerged, or nominate old words wearing new guises. Call it a check-up, an EOFY overview, gauging the latest in our language.

Chopped, say, does more than describe julienned carrots. Ask Gen-Z, and the word means ugly or undesirable (“girl, that mohair jacket is chopped”). Just as cooked isn’t what’s done with the carrots but slang for exhausted or doomed.

Old hat, you may say. Yesterday’s news. As that’s the catch with neologisms: the moment they’re wheeled onstage, they’re not so neo any more. Consider the Australian swag of allegedly new words the Oxford accepted in its June revamp: donkey vote, arc up, saltie, flannie and yeah-nah.........

© Brisbane Times