Month: November 2016

  • On “elite”

    Recently, our Prime Minister started referring to media such as the ABC as “elite media”. Now, what does the word “elite” do? First, let’s look at the definition. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning of the adjective as: “Of or belonging to an elite; exclusive”. And the noun – the elite – is:…

  • On “Border Force”

    Once upon a time Australia used to have a Federal Government department called something like “Department of Customs and Immigration” … something like that. It’s now called the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. Of particular interest, with respect to the use of language, is the language around “borders”. One of the agencies in the…