Editors at the Australian National Dictionary Centre, based at the Australian National University, settled on Canberra bubble after a year of turmoil in federal politics.

They define Canberra bubble as "the insular environment of federal politics".

It beat out other shortlisted contenders including  "bag rage" - the "anger provoked in a customer by the removal of free plastic bags at the checkout" and "fair dinkum power" - "dispatchable energy; coal, as contrasted with renewable sources of energy".

Surprisingly, perhaps, "bonk ban'" only made the long list, in consideration, after then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull banned ministers from having sex with staffers.

Australian National Dictionary Centre director Dr Amanda Laugesen said the expression "Canberra bubble" came to its attention due to its use by the still-new PM, Scott Morrison.

“Politics is always a great contributor to our language,” Dr Laugesen said.

“Canberra bubble is a term that increased in usage significantly through 2018, and it was noticeable that this year Prime Minister Scott Morrison used ‘Canberra bubble’ to define his politics.

“However, critics point out that the Prime Minister is very much inside the Canberra bubble.

“I think it also reflects the notion that across Australia there is some disenchantment with politics, and that politicians are more preoccupied with the goings-on in Canberra than the everyday concerns of Australians.”

Dr Laugesen said there was some trepidation that highlighting "Canberra bubble" would feed into stereotypes of Canberra, the city and its people, being removed from the rest of Australia.

"We certainly did think about that. We're well aware of that tradition around Canberra bashing," Dr Laugesen said.

"But I think everything that has happened this year, the change of prime ministers and the sense of politicians being very caught up in their own debates, which aren't necessarily seen as relevant by a lot of people, we kind of did think it did capture what we've been seeing this year."

The phrase "Canberra bubble" had been around for at least 17 years.

"The earliest evidence we have of this particular use of 'Canberra bubble' goes back to 2001. The Gold Coast Bulletin had an article, 'Life is Great Inside a Canberra Bubble' , talking about John Howard and the people who surrounded him," she said.

"It was used in 2004 when Mark Latham was the Labor opposition leader. It was used of him, 'So sort of, 'Latham is operating outside the Canberra bubble'.

"There was also quite a bit of use of it earlier this year around the Barnaby Joyce-Malcolm Turnbull dispute over the bonk ban. And Malcolm Turnbull used it a bit. And you saw Scott Morrison using it quite a lot and in quite a high profile way when he put out that video saying, 'the Canberra bubble is what happens down here where people get all caught up with all sorts of gossip and rubbish'.

"And then we saw quite a discussion and debate and people started to talk about that idea and Scott Morrison himself."

‘Canberra bubble’ was chosen ahead of a shortlist of words and expressions that gained prominence in Australia throughout 2018.

The shortlist included:

The Australian National Dictionary Centre edits Oxford’s Australian dictionaries and publishes the Australian National Dictionary of words and phrases unique to Australia. Dr Laugesen said the word of the year and shortlisted words would be included in the general reference or Australian dictionaries.

"Something like 'Canberra bubble' or 'fair dinkum power' would be something we'd look at putting in the Australian National Dictionary," Dr Laugesen said.

"These words have a story and say something about Australian culture and history and politics."