When a swimmer dies from a shark bite, as a person at a Sydney beach did last week, is it called an attack, incident or encounter?

Wordsmith and author Kel Richards tells Liam Bartlett on 6PR Mornings there has been much debate about the term since the tragic event.

“Surf Life Saving NSW is moving away from the term ‘attack’ as they don’t think it accurately reflects the behaviour of sharks, so they want ‘shark incident’,” he told Liam.

“They’ve got a good goal, they’re saying great whites are an endangered species and we don’t want them culled.

“Fair enough, but changing the language doesn’t achieve that does it?”

Tap PLAY below to hear the background and meaning of more words this week.

If you have a question for Kel next week, visit his website or email mornings@6pr.com.au