It is my feeling that mateship is a stronger and tougher relationship than friendship, having been forged in adversity.
The basic sense of friend is a person with whom you have achieved a degree of intimacy that is entirely unfettered by a sense of obligation. Friendship excludes the bonds of affection that are there between blood relations or between lovers. Read more…
The Macquarie Dictionary is proud to have international award-winning Australian author, Kate Grenville pen the foreword for the the Seventh Edition. You can get your copy of the Macquarie Dictionary Seventh Edition here or wherever good books are sold. Read more…
The pronunciation that bothers me most is one that I shouldn’t really be fussed about at all. It is the shift in the pronunciation of worry which used to rhyme with hurry but now rhymes, more and more, with sorry.
This word has had various forms and pronunciations in its history in the English language. It started out as an Old English word wyrgan meaning ‘to strangle’ (from which we got the idea of the dog worrying the sheep, from which we got the notion of feeling upset and anxious). Read more…
The Seventh Edition of the Macquarie Dictionary is here. It’s a beautifully packaged, incredibly useful work for anyone who yearns to know more about the Australian English language. You can get your copy of the Macquarie Dictionary Seventh Edition here or wherever good books are sold. Read more…
A collection of some media coverage of Word of the Year 2016.
The People’s Choice Word of the Year 2016 goes to halal snack pack! Honorable mentions go to alt-right and fake news. Read more…
My father was trained as a journalist in the days when newspapers cared about their reputations as disseminators of information that was accurate and reliable. It wasn’t just a legal anxiety, it was an organisational pride in the quality of their news reporting. He told me that you can’t half-know something. You either know it or you don’t. Read more…
Lewis Carroll contributed some of the most inspirational writing in history to the world. With his remarkable manipulation of language, he captured the imaginations not only of children, but of aspiring writers, readers and everyone else who came in contact with his word. Read more…
Here at the Macquarie Dictionary, we have maintained our card catalogue from the early 1980s. It’s in more or less pristine condition, and contained within are hundreds of thousands of original words and definitions from the very first edition of our dictionary. Read more…
The Committee’s Choice for the 2016 word of the Year goes to fake news. Honourable mentions go to enby and halal snack pack.
Do you agree or disagree with the Committee? Have your say and vote now!
