‘Please Rinehart that picture immediately’: New words to add to the lexicon

Ever made up a word that you think should be included in the dictionary? Soonly, shrumpled and hemsworthy certainly deserve their official spot in the dictionary.

Why is exhaustepated not in the dictionary?

Well, aren’t you all a clever lot! After my recent column about made-up words, kickstarted by regular reader Margaret’s glorious “snoozlebugging”, many of you sent in your own creations.

In fact, you sent so many I can’t possibly list them all here, so here follows a selection, and I’m delighted to say Margaret makes a return appearance.

I tell you, Margaret is the gift that keeps giving, and this time she gives us “popply wooslems”. Used in a sentence it means to go to bed – “off to popply wooslems” – coined by an aunt in Margaret’s family and uttered when she sent her children to bed.

What’s delightful to know is that Margaret wrote that the aunt was none other than famous Australian author Dame Mary Durack (Kings in Grass Castles) so she knew a thing or two about words.

Frances Whiting. Picture: David Kelly

Here’s a sprinkling of some more words that have become a part of your own family’s folklore, your own explanations for them, and some of my thoughts on your excellent word skills.

● Shrumpled: When you take a piece of clothing out of the dryer and it has simultaneously shrunk and become crumpled.

● Exhaustepated: A cross between exhausted and frustrated and felt by mothers all over the world, peaking at 5pm.

● Divertigo: When you are sent to the shops by your partner with a list to buy certain products only to come back with completely different ones.

● Whobody: Coined by a reader’s toddler daughter, and usually used in an accusatory tone, as in “Whobody did this?”

● Soonly: A suitably vague expression for describing when something will be done when you want to get someone off your back: To wit, “I shall have that report to you soonly.”

● Aquabludging: When you don’t want to face the day, so instead stay in the shower for far too long, just enjoying the warm water.

● Emailaise: The state of exhaustion and frustration from dealing with scam/spam emails.

● Splosh: When people ask how much wine I want, I say a splosh to let them know I mean business.

When an entire family is ridiculously good looking, they are deemed Hemsworthy. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

● Kafoozulum: When you are unable to remember the correct name of something, you are in a state of kafoozalum. (Coincidentally, this is pretty much my permanent state.)

● Mizzle: A combination of mist and drizzle, not heavy enough for an umbrella but just right for a rain jacket.

● Mockets: Fake pockets. (Personally, I find very few things more disappointing.)

● Constipaction: The state of being unable to take any action or complete anything on your To Do List.

● Scallywoundrel: A particularly mischievous young person. (Or my dog, Wilson.)

And finally, two words I have made up myself recently – and if someone has already made up these words, please forgive me for claiming ownership, but here goes.

The first is a new expression for when someone takes an unflattering picture of me, and I then demand they delete it from their phone immediately. The term is “Rineharting”, and I do it often.

Used in a sentence you could say, “Please Rinehart that picture of me immediately” to your teenage children who delight in taking the worst possible picture of you and then sending it to all their friends.

The second word I have made up is Hemsworthy: When an entire family is ridiculously good looking, they are deemed Hemsworthy. Used in a sentence, when looking at a photo of an impossibly beautiful family, you could say “Gosh, they’re so Hemsworthy, aren’t they?”

Originally published as ‘Please Rinehart that picture immediately’: New words to add to the lexicon