CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australians love their muffin tops -- but not the kind you buy from a bakery.
The arbiter of Australian English, the Macquarie Dictionary, has declared "muffin top" the word of the year for 2006 -- even though it is two words -- defeating "affluenza", a noun that describes dissatisfaction with consumerism.
The dictionary defines "Muffin top" as a colloquial noun that refers to the fold of fat around the midriff which spills over the top of tight-fitting pants or skirts on the overweight.
"The vivid imagery of this word with its sense of playfulness and the fact that it is an Australianism made it the clear winner," the judges said.
Judges Gavin Brown and Stephen Garton, both professors at Sydney University, and Dictionary publisher Susan Butler said "muffin top" had spread globally due to the popular TV comedy Kath and Kim, which pokes fun at suburban life Down Under.
The victory for "muffin top" came after it was shortlisted for the 2005 American Dialect Society's most creative word, only to lose out to "whale tail" - the bit of a g-string, or thong, that shows above the waistband at the back of pants or skirts.
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