“Iso”, the characteristically Australian slang for self-isolation, has been named the 2020 word of the year by the Australian National Dictionary Centre.
The ANDC’s word of the year is given to a word or expression that has “gained prominence in the Australian social landscape”.
In a year dominated by the coronavirus pandemic, “iso” beat other shortlisted words including “Covid-normal” and “bubble”.
The only shortlisted word not related to the pandemic was “Black Summer” – the commonly accepted name for the unprecedented 2019-20 bushfires.
Mark Gwynn, a senior researcher at the ANDC, which is based at the Australian National University, said “iso” had been chosen for its Australian nature and because it is “linguistically productive” – meaning it can be combined to form new compounds, from “iso baking” and “iso cooking” to “iso cut” and “iso fashion”.
He said iso and its combinations were so popular they were not just used between people but had been adopted by media and Australian popular culture.
“We had our first evidence for ‘iso’ in February and it really starts to take off in March,” Gwynn said. “It is commented on by linguists around the world that it is an Australian term. You will find it elsewhere but it has got that especially Australian resonance.”
He said the research team had also chosen iso for its humour, as it reflected new social dynamics that weren’t purely medical terminology.
“We could have chosen ‘social distancing’ or ‘coronavirus’ itself. But for many of us it’s been such an awful year, ‘iso’ it is not making light of it, but it helps us communicate the wold we live in now … It sums up not just the virus itself, but the social and living circumstances.
“There has been humour that comes out, people sharing images of their disastrous haircuts and calling it the ‘iso cut’ or ‘iso haircut’. It has also been used quite differently, you can be ‘in iso’ meaning in self-isolation, you can talk about ‘the iso’ meaning the world we live in now.”
Other words were considered for being typically Australian responses to Covid-19.
“Bubble” was used in new constructions like “travel bubble”, for both the trans-Tasman and interstate travel bubbles, as Australia looked to reboot tourism. As sport resumed, “player bubble”, “NRL bubble” and “sport bubble” also emerged to describe the restrictions placed on sportspeople to ensure they could still play.
Multiple NRL players and coaches were described as breaching the “NRL bubble” rules this year.
“Driveway” was also shortlisted, for its use about this year’s Anzac Day in compounds such as “driveway Anzac service” and “driveway dawn service”.
Last year’s ANDC word of the year was “voice” – reflecting the increased focus and debate about an Indigenous voice to parliament, which was recommended by the 2017 Uluru statement from the heart. “Voice” beat “quiet Australians” and “fish kill”, which were also shortlisted that year.
Previous winners of the separate Macquarie Dictionary word of the year include “me too” in 2019, “milkshake duck” in 2018, and “fake news” in 2017.
For those wondering whether “Black Summer” or “me too” are two words, as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s resident linguist explained in 2017, single words can consist of two parts.
Such multipart constructions, such as “heart attack”, “man-of-war” and “fake news” (which was also declared the 2017 word of the year by the American Dialect Society), are commonly accepted by linguists as words.
Gwynn said iso would also have a longevity beyond 2020, though he hoped it would eventually fade away, along with the Covid-19 pandemic.
“This virus has really changed the way that we live, and it has changed the way we communicate,” he said. “Historically ‘iso’ will be commented upon. For all we know, this virus is not going away anytime soon, we will be living this again next year, and we will be talking about it.
“If you talk about the language of the pandemic generally, you have got this medicalisation of the vocabulary. We have all suddenly become familiar with all this medical terminology we didn’t even know before.
“But these other terms like ‘iso’ – I think ‘iso’ will be one way that we will talk about this period for a long time.”
