Tony Abbott’s ‘shirtfront’ is Australia’s word of the year

"Shirtfront", an aggressive Australian sports term used by Prime Minister Tony Abbott to challenge Russia's Vladimir Putin, was yesterday picked as the Australian National Dictionary Centre's word of the year, beating "man-bun".

Abbott in October vowed to "shirtfront" the Russian president - an Australian Rules football term in which a player charges head-on at an opponent - over the crash of Malaysia Airlines MH17 in eastern Ukraine.

Some 298 people died in the July incident, including 38 Australian citizens and residents, with the West claiming that the plane was blown out of the sky with a missile supplied by Russia, an allegation Moscow denies.

"I'm going to shirtfront Mr Putin - you bet I am," Abbott said about what he would do when he met him at the G20 leaders' summit in Brisbane last month.

Some critics thought the term was inappropriate but Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said it had "now entered the diplomatic lexicon of many countries".

The leaders of Britain and India joked about the word when they visited Australia.