JOURNO

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) In media slang (originally in Australia): a journalist. Etymology: Formed by abbreviating journalist and adding the colloquial suffix -o (as in milko for milkman, etc.). This suffix is particularly popular in forming Australian nicknames and colloquialisms: see also muso. History and Usage: In use for several decades in Australia, journo was popularized in the British newspapers from the mid eighties onwards, especially by the columnist Philip Howard. The word's popularity in the late eighties perhaps reflects the fashion for things Australian in the entertainment world generally; in particular, the ownership of many British newspapers by Australian tycoon Rupert Murdoch, and the fashion for Australian soap operas and television series, which have brought Australian forms of speech into prominence. You meet a better class of person there [at a girl's school] than egocentric journos. The Times 20 July 1984, p. 10 Compared to the excesses for which Fleet Street journos are traditionally noted, chocolate addiction seems positively virtuous. She Aug. 1990, p. 69