Meet Susan Butler, Australia's official "Word Queen"!
Susan is the editor of Australia's Macquarie Dictionary and is widely regarded as one of the world's best lexicographers. She is literally called on whenever there's a dispute about words and their wonderful meanings.
We decided to test Susan's skills on the sidelines of the TedX Sydney conference. We asked her to guess the definitions of what passes for words on the internet.
Here... we... go...
1. "On fleek"
Susan: "On a fleeting second of connection online".
Urban Dictionary: "The quality of being perfect, or on point".
2. "Bae"
Susan: "A form of address for a young woman or girlfriend".
Urban dictionary: "Bæ/bae is a Danish word for poop. Also used by people on the internet who think it means baby, sweetie etc".
3. "Cheeky Nandos"
Susan: "A dish of Mexican origin with a lot of salsa on top!"
Urban dictionary: "When you expect to go to Nandos as usual, but find that the visit/experience is more impudent or irreverent in a certain manner, typically in an amusing way".
4. "DGAF"
Susan: "Deadly Gross Awful Fuck-Up"
Urban Dictionary: "Don't Give A Fuck"
5. "OTP"
Susan: "Over The Pot"
Urban Dictionary: "One True Pairing. Meaning the your favorite combination of characters in a fandom"
6. "Shipping"
Susan: "Making up a relationship between two fictional characters"
Urban Dictionary: "A term used to describe fan fictions that take previously created characters and put them as a pair"
7. "TL;DR"
Susan: "The Lying Down Room"
Urban Dictionary: "Too Long, Didn't Read. Term used to explain something. (Usually a post) that's too long, and they were too lazy to read"
8. "YAAASS"
Susan: "A very affected way of saying 'yes'!"
Urban Dictionary: "A term used to define someone or something as exceedingly fabulous"
9. And for a bonus we asked Susan what her favourite word in the dictionary.
Susan said "pellucid" means translucent or clear.
"Imagine looking into some crystal clear water and describing it as pellucid."
Hats off to you, Susan. Please feel free to borrow our words any time you like, you word queen!
