Is "Announceable" as a noun an Australianism?
I just heard of the word "Announceable" being as a noun. This word was announced as a Word of the Year candidate in 2011 by the Macquarie Dictionary. An example from 2010, albeit using sneer quotes: Less spin, more heart, PM Julia Gillard vows
The Prime Minister has told her MPs at their first caucus meeting since the election that Labor must renew its sense of purpose, and she assured them that she would not be looking for an "announceable" for the six o'clock news.
Doing an anonymous search of google.com (not google.com.au) and of Twitter mainly got hits from Australia and Australian twitterers. This sounds fairly plausible, because Australians love to mock the spin of our politicians (The Hollowmen, Utopia (known as Dreamland elsewhere)). But I'm not sure where to find confirmation.
Is "Announceable" as a noun an Australianism, more common in Australian English than British and American English?
Solution 1:
As I understand it, "Announceable" did originate in Australian political satire, but as the quote shows it has moved into common usage here; that was a leading politician, offering a quote for mainstream media consumption, which was presented verbatim (assuming the audience already understood its meaning).
But it's a very useful word that surely has broader relevance (beyond Australia). It concisely describes a politician's desperate, continuous search for something (anything) to announce at their next planned media event (a "presser", "door stop", "high viz", etc). The content of the announcement is immaterial - they just want anything that is "able to be announced".
Solution 2:
There are very few usage instances in Ngram of annouceable as a noun where it is used with inverted commas. It appears to be a local, but uncommon, usage of the adjective as a noun.
- The "announceable" at the Vancouver 1997 Leaders Meeting was the endorsement of the "Early Voluntary Sectoral Liberalization" (EVSL), aimed at accelerating trade liberalization in nine sectors.(What's in a Name?: Globalization, Regionalization, and Apec )
and:
A meeting of the National Security Committee of the cabinet has, however, recently asked for a list of national-security-related things that could be announced weekly between now and the election.
How much scrutiny has gone into these "announceables" is unclear. (Financial Review)
- It is mentioned as a noun in Wiktionary referring to the mispelling announcable.