Paul Scott writes: From flogs to feral - behind the words of 'straight talkin'' Hunter politicians

So said Cr Jenny Barrie about the appearance of the inner-city at last week's City of Newcastle council meeting.

Not since earlier this month when state MP Sonia Hornery branded the idiot or idiots who destroyed the playing surface at Wallsend's Federal Park as "absolute flogs", has a point been made by a local pollie via some straight-talkin'.

'Flogs' is noice, but the addition of the qualifying adjective "absolute" by the Member for Wallsend elevated the noun to a visceral level when describing the morons who do doughies on sporting fields.

Flog was the Oxford University Press (OUP) word of the month in December 2018. Oxford listed it as "noun: (derogatory) a pretentious or conceited person; a fool."

There's enough evidence for OUP to claim flog's use as a derogatory noun is uniquely Australian. OUP elaborates that one of the earliest examples of this sense of flog can be found in a 2006 posting on Urban Dictionary - the online open-source dictionary of slang that shares little in common with either the Oxford Dictionary or Macca's Big Book of Words (also known as the Macquarie Dictionary).

A contributor to Urban Dictionary lists several meanings for flog, including the following in an illustrative sentence: "flog ... (noun) a poser, someone who likes to big-note themselves ... Look at that wanker in the Porsche talking on his car phone. What a flog." Oxford's word sleuths point out that such use of flog is "related to the verb flog meaning 'to masturbate'", and that type of usage can be traced back to the early 1940s, although the agent noun 'flogger' wasn't used until later.

Flog and flogger are therefore synonymous with wank and wanker, with roughly the same mid-20th century dates of first usage. In Australian usage, the noun wank means "a pretentious person or thing; pretentiousness", as in "what a wank". Flog has evolved with a similar emphasis on pretentiousness. But the most recent entry to describe flog in the Urban Dictionary - submitted by 'Some Flog' in March this year - has less emphasis on pretentiousness and is more aligned with the Sonia Hornery's usage: "Boofa's a total flog - was doin' doughies out front of the cop shop like he was a real tough c... and then BANG, blew both his rears." Noice.

Feral. Cr Barrie was critiquing the look or vibe of the inner-city when she said "it's just feral" and that civic pride is at an "all time low" for residents near the Hunter Street Mall and in the city.

The Herald reported that Cr Barrie said "...this area has been neglected. I've got some personal friends, one who lives in Newcastle West in Hunter Street and she comes from a 'third world country' and in her opinion they treat their main streets better over there."

There certainly are areas that do not reflect well upon our city, although the use of "third world country" is a term best avoided as it is contemporarily considered offensive.

"Although the phrase was widely used, it was never clear whether it was a clear category of analysis, or simply a convenient and rather vague label for an imprecise collection of states in the second half of the 20th century and some of the common problems that they faced," historian B.R. Tomlinson wrote in What Was the Third World?, published in the April 2003 edition of Journal of Contemporary History.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "feral" has three meanings: "existing in a wild or untamed state"; "having returned to an untamed state from domestication"; and "of, or suggestive of, a wild animal; savage".

It is the second context where feral is most found in everyday usage. It is applied to domesticated animals that have left human society and control.

In some parts the city does look as though it exists in an untamed state and has been dreadfully neglected. Empty buildings attract vandals. Graffiti and tagging remains a recurring problem. It's a drag to see that even some of the terrific artwork that brightened up communication boxes has been hit by spray cans or textas.

There's little that can be done - other than 'please' letters - to force owners to remove graffiti from their properties.

That was tried by a well-meaning vigilante gang a few years ago and resulted in both clean canvasses for the next lot of absolute flogs and complaints from property owners.

Hunter Street Mall's empty buildings are about to be demolished. Newcastle West is undergoing transformation. Neither can happen soon enough.