Term for a simple sausage in bread becomes Australia's 'word of the year'

"Democracy sausage" has been deemed Australia's 2016 word of the year, according to the Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANDC) on Wednesday.

The term, which comes into favor every four years around the time of Australia's federal election, refers to the often gratuitous barbecued sausage in bread which Australians eat at polling stations after voting.

The ANDC, based at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, came up with the winner because of its wildly popular use during the 2016 federal election, held in July.

According to the center's director, Dr Amanda Laugesen, "democracy sausage" was chosen ahead of other popular terms "census fail", "smashed avo" and "shoey".

"Arguably, the 'democracy sausage' has been one of the best things to come out of a tumultuous year in politics and political campaigning," Laugesen said in a statement on Wednesday.

"Its use was also boosted by a controversial incident where Opposition Leader Bill Shorten - who noted his sausage sandwich was 'the taste of democracy' - ate his sausage from the middle," she said, something which is generally frowned upon by 'true blue' Aussies.

From the ANDC's shortlist, "census fail" came about after the nation's botched online census while "smashed avo" was the hot topic after a respected columnist suggested young Australians might be able to save enough money to afford increasingly expensive inner-city homes if they stopped eating avocado on toast at cafes.

"It prompted a furious backlash in the media from Generation Y, who protested that home ownership is out of their reach," Laugesen said.

Meanwhile doing a "shoey" is drinking alcohol from one's shoe, often in celebration. It was made famous by Aussie Formula 1 star Daniel Ricciardo, who drank champagne from his racing shoe after winning a race earlier in the year. Endit