"In the beginning"

Disclaimer

The views expressed in this blog are not necessarily the views of the blog management, (on the other hand, they are not necessarily not the views of the blog management).

No effort has been made to stay within the bounds of the truth in this blog as it has always been the view of the management that the truth should never be allowed to stand in the way of a good story.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Australian as she is spoken.

It is abundantly clear from the responses to my last post that only Australians understood it, perhaps the slang word with a description will help??

This is a labour of love that I will undertake over several posts in an endeavor to help you understand what I'm talking about here at holtieshouse, besides its fun to watch my spell checker chuck a wobbly.

Australian Slang

G'day, mate! Learn these Australian slang words and phrases and you'll feel at home on your first day Down Under.



A

Ace! : Excellent! Very good!
Aerial pingpong : Australian Rules football
Amber fluid : beer
Ambo : ambulance, ambulance driver
Ankle biter : small child
Apples, she'll be : It'll be all right
Arvo : afternoon
Aussie (pron. Ozzie) : Australian
Aussie salute : brushing away flies with the hand
Avos : avocados


B

B & S : Bachelors' and Spinsters' Ball - a very enjoyable party usually held in rural areas
Back of Bourke : a very long way away
Bail (somebody) up : to corner somebody physically
Bail out : depart, usually angrily
Banana bender : a person from Queensland
Barbie : barbecue (noun) also BBQ
Barrack : to cheer on (football team etc.)
Bastard : term of endearment when used as (G’day you old bastard) not so much when
(he’s a bit of a bastard)

Bathers : swimming costume, also togs, cozzi or swimmers.
Battler : someone working hard and only just making a living
Beaut, beauty bewdy : great, fantastic
Big-note oneself : brag, boast
Bikkie : biscuit (also "it cost big bikkies" - it was expensive)
Billabong : an ox-bow river or watering hole, (I have no idea what an ox-bow river is) the deeper pools left when a river dries up is a better description.
Billy : teapot. Container for boiling water, usually over a campfire.
Bingle : motor vehicle accident
Bities : biting insects
Bitzer : mongrel dog (bits of this and bits of that)
Bizzo : business ("mind your own bizzo")
Black Stump, beyond the : a long way away, the back of nowhere
Bloke : man, guy
Bloody : very eg bloody hard yakka, also known as the great Australian adjective, (see poem at the end of post) yakka is work, derived from a brand of work wear popular with builders and "tradies".
Bloody oath! : that's certainly true
Blow in the bag : have a breathalyser test
Blowie : blow fly
Bludger : lazy person, layabout, somebody who always relies on other people to do things or lend him things
Blue : fight ("he was having a blue with his wife")
Blue, make a : make a mistake
Bluey : pack, equipment, traffic ticket, redhead
Bluey : blue cattle dog (named after its subtle markings) which is an excellent working dog. a favourite all-Aussie dog.
Bluey : heavy wool or felt jacket worn by mining and construction workers.
Bluey : bluebottle jellyfish..... Thank the lord that's the finish of
Blue/Bluey.
Bodgie :
a 60s hairstyle adopted by teenagers, the female partner to a bodgie was a widgie.
Bodgy : of inferior quality
Bog in : commence eating, to attack food with enthusiasm
Bog standard : basic, unadorned, without accessories (a bog standard car, telephone etc.)
Bogan : person who takes little pride in his appearance, spends his days slacking and drinking beer, (I was unaware of this being of Australian origin?)
Bogged : Stuck in mud, deep sand (a vehicle).
Bondi cigar : see "brown-eyed mullet"
Bonzer : great, ripper, also bonza.
Boogie board : a hybrid, half-sized surf board
Boomer : a large male kangaroo
Booze bus : police vehicle used for conducting breath-alyser tests.
Bored shitless : very bored
Bottle shop : liquor shop, usually attached to a hotel (pub)
Bottle-o : liquor shop (originally a man with hessian bags going around picking up beer bottles in the 50's and 60's)
Bottler : something excellent
Bottling, his blood's worth : he's an excellent, helpful bloke.
Bouncer : a bully
Bourke Street, he doesn't know Christmas from : he's a bit slow in the head. (Bourke Street is a brightly lit Melbourne street)
Bowl of rice, not my : not my cup of tea; I don't like it
Brass razoo, he hasn't got a : he's very poor
Brekkie : breakfast
Brick shit house, built like a : big strong bloke
Brickie : bricklayer, a tradesman or "tradie".
Brisvegas : Brisbane, state capital of Queensland
Brizzie : Brisbane, state capital of Queensland
Brown-eyed mullet : a turd in the sea (where you're swimming!)
Brumby : a wild horse
Buck's night : stag party, male gathering the night before the wedding
Buckley's, or Buckley's chance : no chance, from a Melbourne department store Buckley & Nunn,
eg "New Zealand stands Buckley's of beating Australia at football".
Budgie smugglers : men's bathing costume
Bull bar : stout bar fixed to the front of a vehicle to protect it against hitting kangaroos (also roo bar)
Bundy : short for Bundaberg, Queensland, and the brand of rum that's made there
Bunyip : mythical outback creature which inhabited billabongs.
Bush : the hinterland, the Outback, anywhere that isn't in town
Bush bash : long competitive running or motorcar race through the bush
Bush oyster : nasal mucus
Bush telly : campfire
Bushie : someone who lives in the Bush
Bushman's hanky : Emitting nasal mucus by placing one index finger on the outside of the nose (thus blocking one nostril) and blowing.
Bushranger : highwayman, outlaw
Butcher : small glass of beer in South Australia - From the theory that a butcher could take a quick break from his job, have a drink and be back at work
BYO : unlicensed restaurant where you have to Bring Your Own grog, also similar for a party or barbecue



C

Cab Sav : Cabernet Sauvignon (a variety of wine grape)
Cactus : dead, not functioning ("this bloody washing machine is cactus")
Cane toad : a person from Queensland
Captain Cook : look (noun) ("let's have a Captain Cook") rhyming slang.
Cark it : to die, cease functioning
Cat burying shit, as busy as a : busy
Cat's piss, as mean as : mean, stingy, uncharitable
Chewie : chewing gum
Chokkie : chocolate
Chook : a chicken
Chrissie : Christmas
Christmas : see Bourke Street
Chuck a sickie : take the day off sick from work when you're perfectly healthy
Chunder : vomit
Clacker : anus (from Latin cloaca = sewer). Also the single orifice of monotremes (platypus and echidna) used both for reproduction and for the elimination of body wastes.
Clayton's : fake, substitute
Cleanskin : Bottle of wine without a label. Usually bought in bulk by companies who then add their own personalised label and use the wine as e.g. gifts to clients
Cleanskin : cattle that have not been branded, earmarked or castrated.
Click : kilometre - "it's 10 clicks away"
Clucky : feeling broody or maternal
Coathanger : Sydney Harbour bridge
Cobber : friend
Cockie : farmer (Farmers were called cockies in the early days of European settlement because, like the birds of the same name, they made their homes on the edges of permanent waterholes)
Cockie : cockatoo
Cockie : cockroach
Cockroach : a person from New South Wales
Coldie : a beer
Come a gutser : make a bad mistake, have an accident
Compo : Workers' Compensation pay
Conch (adj. conchy) : a conscientious person. Somebody who would rather work or study than go out and enjoy him/herself.
Cooee, not within : figuratively a long way away, far off - England weren't within cooee of beating Australia at cricket
Cooee, within : nearby - I was within cooee of landing a big fish when the line broke. He lives within cooee of Sydney.
Cook (noun) : One's wife
Corker : something excellent. A good stroke in cricket might be described as a 'corker of a shot'
Corroboree : an aboriginal dance festival
Counter lunch/Countery : pub lunch
Cozzie : swimming costume
Crack a fat : get an erection
Crack onto (someone) : to hit on someone, pursue someone romantically
Cranky : in a bad mood, angry
Cream (verb) : defeat by a large margin
Crook : sick, or badly made
Crow eater : a person from South Australia
Cubby house : Small, usually timber, house in the garden used as a childrens plaything.
Cut lunch : sandwiches
Cut lunch commando : army reservist

Cut snake, mad as a : very angry, cut in this instance means castrated.



Bloody.... The great Australian adjective.


Oodna-bloody-datta

The bloody town’s a bloody cuss,
No bloody trams, no bloody bus.
And no-one cares for bloody us
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

Just bloody heat and bloody flies,
The bloody sweat runs in your eyes.
And if it rains, what a surprise
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

No bloody fun, no bloody games,
No bloody sport, no bloody dames.
Won’t even give their bloody names
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

No bloody clouds or bloody rain.
No bloody curbs no bloody drains.
The bloody council’s got no brains
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

The bloody goods are bloody dear’
A bloody buck for a bloody beer.
But is it good, no bloody fear
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

The bloody dances make you smile,
The bloody band is bloody vile,
They only cramp your bloody style
In Oodna-bloody-datta.

The best place is in bloody bed
With bloody ice upon your head,
You might as well be bloody dead
In Oodna-bloody-datta.


Author unknown








8 comments:

Puss-in-Boots said...

I think there's discrimination against Queenslanders.

Dave said...

Now there ya go! *LOL*

Some of the words we use here too, but mostly not.

BTW, your time widget on the right side of the blog is off an hour for East Coast US (not using DST?)

Gigi Ann said...

G'day Peter,

Thanks for visiting my blogs. As you noticed I like BRIGHT COLORS. The Pinks are one of my favorite, and the 'blue' one goes with the "Moody Blues"

I see it is close your bedtime, and I am just getting awake, after a good night sleep.

Thanks for all your good advice. I changed to the pop-up window just for you;))

But, my colorful colors stay;)

Good night until tomorrow...

gramma ann

You talked about making things better to navigate on my blog, what is this "Choose an identity" thingy. It doesn't make things easier to navigate...I'll try again, the first time didn't work. Here I go again...maybe it will work this time. That thing is a pain in the you name it....

karisma said...

LOL! Heres another one my uncles taught me when I told them not to swear!

Bloody's in the bible
Bloody's in the book
If you don't bloody believe me
Have a bloody look!

Now Im not sure if thats Australian but my uncles sure were!

wazza said...

Gidday Peter,

Waal, bloody hell I'm stuffed if I could follow all them Aussie slang thingamgigs. There's just too many words for a poor ole' bloke like me to read. Maybe if I chuck down a slab or two it might help?? Then again if I do I might chuck up instead.

kenju said...

You guys need a whole dictionary to yourselves, don't you? LOL

Hale McKay said...

Peter,

I loved this and the previous posts.

This made it easy to go back and read the other one.

Like Kenju said, the Aussies do need a dictionary for the rest of the world to refer to - I think you just earned the job of producing one.

Pamela said...

I see a few familiar words...
like Cranky, and Cream

American slang, too