Iso picked as ’typically Aussie’ word of the year

Image: Anya Wotton, ANU - Iso: self-isolation; the act of remaining apart from others as a way to limit the spread of an infectious disease, especially as a public health measure. In a year dominated by COVID-19 the Australian National Dictionary Centre has chosen  iso  as its Word of the Year from a very long list of pandemic-related terms. Each year the Centre, based at The Australian National University (ANU), picks a word or expression that has gained prominence in the Australian social landscape. Senior Researcher Mark Gwynn says that among the hundreds of pandemic-related terms collected by the Centre,  iso  stood out as a characteristically Aussie abbreviation.  "Our fondness for abbreviating words in Australia, and a natural human inclination to make the unknown and scary familiar, quickly saw the descriptive term 'self-isolation' shortened to  iso  in March this year," Mr Gwynn said.  "Not only is  iso  distinctively Australian in usage, it has also been linguistically productive by combining with other words to form compounds such as  iso baking ,  iso bar ,  iso cut  and  iso fashion.  "Many of us found humour in language use as a way to cope with our changed working and social circumstances, so why not talk about a bad self-inflicted haircut as an  iso cut , or the extra weight gained due to lack of exercise as  iso kilos. "  The words on the shortlist reflect the impact of the pandemic in 2020, with only one word chosen that was not related to the virus and its effects.