Concern about the environmental impact of plastic straws, bags and disposable coffee cups has seen "single-use" win the people's vote for the Macquarie Dictionary word of the year.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
However, the word - which means intended for disposal after only one use - only beat "me too" by a handful of votes.
The global #metoo movement, which targets sexual harassment and assault, was the committee's choice for 2018 word of the year.
Punters had one week to pick from a 15-word shortlist for the word that best represented the year gone by.
"In 2018 in Australia, we have had the big supermarkets getting rid of single-use plastic bags and the ABC's War on Waste has ensured we feel a level of guilt if we don't present our barista with a keep cup," a committee spokesperson said.
"The committee felt that 'single-use' has taken off partly because it refers to the cause of an environmental crisis that individuals have the power to directly counter in our everyday lives, unlike the death of the Great Barrier Reef."
Honourable mentions include "hygge", a Danish word for the practice of creating an environment of cosiness, and "vertical farming", where food is farmed vertically in stacked structures.
The dictionary's word of the year contest has long been open to constructions of two or more words.
"Milkshake duck", a term that describes an overnight social media sensation whose positive support quickly ends with closer scrutiny, was the 2017 word of the year.
TOP WORDS OF 2018
* Single-use: intended for disposal after only one use.
* Me Too: of or relating to an accusation of sexual harassment or sexual assault, especially as having occurred at some time in the past and which has since remained undisclosed.
* Hygge: the practice of creating an environment of cosiness, which, in turn, fosters feelings of contentment and wellbeing.
* Vertical farming: farming food in vertically inclined layers or stacked structures, such as indoors or along the sides of buildings, designed to reduce the water and space demands of traditional agriculture.
* BDE (big dick energy): a sense of self-confidence, unaccompanied by arrogance or conceit.
* Deepfake: a video of a computer-generated likeness of an individual, created using deep learning without the individual's knowledge, often for the purpose of misinformation, vindictiveness, or satire.
Source: Macquarie Dictionary
Australian Associated Press
