The Australian National Dictionary Centre has declared the two-word compound phrase “democracy sausage” to be its 2016 Word of the Year, defining it as “A barbecued sausage served on a slice of bread, bought at a polling booth sausage sizzle on election day.”
Voting is mandatory in Australia, and Australians frequently fundraise for various causes by selling grilled sausages at polling places.
Of course, the other connotation pertaining to sausages and politics is more widely known: “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made” (John Godfrey Saxe).
The 2016 Word of the Year Down Under? ‘Democracy Sausage’. [Kevin Rennie/Global Voices]
(Image: A democracy sausage eaten outside Old Parliament House during the 2016 Australian Federal Election, Democracy Sausage, CC-BY-SA)
