‘Matilda’ named Australia’s 2023 phrase of the yr
The huge reputation of Australia’s girls’s soccer group is one for the historical past books: “Matilda” has been named Australia’s phrase of the yr.
The soccer group, known as the “Matildas” or Tillies for brief, completed fourth on the Women’s Fifa World Cup in August.
Their semi-final match towards England was the most-watched TV program in Australia since 2001, reaching greater than 11 million viewers.
Their success swept the nation, with Matildas on banners at pubs and dwelling rooms.
The Australian National Dictionary Centre, primarily based on the Australian National University, selects a phrase or expression that has gained prominence within the Australian panorama over the previous 12 months.
The Centre’s Director Dr Amanda Laugesen mentioned this yr’s selection was straightforward given the large reputation of the group and the phrase’s lengthy historical past in Australian English.
She mentioned it additionally displays the expansion of curiosity in girls’s group sports activities.
“From the 1880s, matilda was one of the names for a swag, a bag of possessions carried by an itinerant man looking for work. These days most people would only know this in relation to the song Waltzing Matilda,” Dr Laugesen mentioned.
“It’s solely because the mid-Nineteen Nineties that the ladies’s soccer group has been known as the Matildas, however after this yr’s World Cup the phrase has as soon as once more cemented itself within the Australian lexicon.”
rm/msh (AFP)
