Australian National Dictionary Centre’s 2023 Word of the Year inspired by our soccer stars — the Matildas

The Matildas captured hearts, minds, television screens and stadiums across the country when they played in the World Cup earlier this year, and it seems they have captured the team behind this year’s Word of the Year, too.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre, based at Australian National University, has picked the word ‘Matilda’ as the Word of the Year for 2023, due to its rich history and the revival our soccer stars have brought to it.

“As an editorial team … we’re looking to highlight a word that has been significant and represents something about Australia each year,” Mark Gwynn, senior researcher at the Australian National Dictionary Centre, told ABC Radio Canberra.

“Basically where the team’s name comes from, matilda meaning a swag, as in Waltzing Matilda, is one of the reasons we chose the word.

The Matildas finished fourth at the World Cup in August, and nearly 2 million people packed grandstands across Australia and New Zealand to watch the matches play out.

Their semi-final match against England was the most-watched TV program in Australia since 2001, drawing in more than 11 million people.  

“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,” Australian National Dictionary Centre director Dr Amanda Laugesen said.

Indeed, the “Matildas effect” has seen sports participation rates surge across the country, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledging $200 million in government funding for women’s sports through the Play Our Way program.

The Queensland government announced plans to install a statue at Suncorp Stadium in their honour, and the search for “the biggest stadiums available” for their Olympic qualifying match against Uzbekistan in February 2024 has already commenced.

It is not just fans the team is winning, though — just last week, a new collective bargaining agreement between Football Australia and the players’ union, Professional Footballers Australia, was reached, ensuring every player in a camp squad earns the same match payment if they make the team sheet, regardless of whether or not they play.

Voice to Parliament referendum behind other shortlisted words

Mr Gwynn said that while there were not as many words on the centre’s shortlist this year – no “democracy sausages” or COVID-related events inspiring “words that fell into our lap” — the selection was still rich.

Other words shortlisted on the 2023 Word of the Year list include:

•    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: acknowledging and recognising 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.  

Last year, “teal” — in reference to the independent candidates who unseated mostly male Liberal MPs in the federal election — was the centre’s Word of the Year.

In 2021, “strollout” — the term used to describe the pace at which vaccines were rolled out across the country — was the Word of the Year, and in 2020 the word was “iso”, or, self-isolation.

But the question begs: is this year’s Word of the Year Matilda, or Matildas?

“It’s both,” Mr Gwynn said, comparing the use of the word to the way we refer to the Wallabies.

“The plural form is the team, the singular form is a member of the team.”

Just where this latest accolade for the Matildas ranks on their list of achievements remains to be seen, but it’s clear “the Matilda effect” persists.