The Australian women's soccer team has scored another goal in a record-breaking year with 'Matilda' dubbed the word of 2023.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
The 'Tillies' masterclass at the 2023 Women's World Cup led to an "easy" choice for the Australian National Dictionary Centre, based at the Australian National University.
Not only did the 'Tillies' go further in the World Cup than any Australian soccer team, the semi-final against England was the most-watched television program in decades with more than 11 million Australians tuning in.
The Centre's director Dr Amanda Laugesen said the word had a long history in Australian English and also reflected the soaring interest in women's sport.
"It's only since the mid-1990s that the women's soccer team has been called the Matildas, but after this year's World Cup the word has once again cemented itself in the Australian lexicon," she said.
Dr Laugesen said the exact origin of the term 'Matilda' was unclear in Australian English, but it ultimately came from the female name.
"From the 1880s 'Matilda' was one of the names for a swag, a bag of possessions carried by an itinerant man looking for work," she said.
"These days most people would only know this in relation to the song Waltzing Matilda."
She said the original German name referred to strength in battle - "an appropriate name for a team that has inspired so many people this year".
Shortlisted words reflect 2023's biggest talking point
Each year the Centre selects a term or phrase that has gained prominence in the Australian vernacular.
The shortlist in 2023 reflects the dominance of the Voice to Parliament debate, with the words "noer", "yesser" and "truth-telling" all featuring.
IN OTHER NEWS:
In 2019, the Centre picked the word "voice" as the word of the year.
The full 2023 shortlist includes:
- noer: a person who intends to vote no in the referendum on a proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament; a person who voted no in the referendum.
- yesser: a person who intends to vote yes in the referendum; a person who voted yes in the referendum.
- truth-telling: the acknowledgement and recognition of the historical and ongoing mistreatment and injustices affecting Indigenous peoples in Australia.
- hallucinate: (of artificial intelligence) to generate false or inaccurate information and present it as fact.
The word of the year in 2022 was "teal", after the wave of independents who ran for parliament in the federal election.
